FOREST AND STREAM. 
deer, and after eating nearly all of it-not at one meal of 
c T e ~ bul before . tbe tr ack was found by Mr. Hutchins 
who WI1B in that vicinity on a fibbing tnn Hi* . J 
retired to the large top of a fallen hemloek 
was started and treed by the dog after a sham’ rsc^T * ‘ Ch h ° 
ter of a mile. A bullet through the brainStLd hta Tv* 
first one killed or seoofo uul 
Ladoo. 
hit«^^- H , ard timc8 here *>" ^ the rab- 
along [hi base of t^e W sT are P'^ ing 8ad bavoc with them 
Wh lo _ , 8C . of th f ®kawangunk Mountains. A number of 
hunter^OIarhloto been . 1 noticed. James Pine, the veteran fox 
tbTlftn, cblctown, shot a fane cross-barred fox on Monday, 
£ week 5S PCn i ny ’ ° f ^rlborough, while hunting one day 
silver-grey fox west of that village. A num- 
oer of others have been captured by other parties. 
Our Harry. 
Big Fox. — A red fox was killed at Homellsville, N. Y., 
lost week, which measured 4 feet 8$ inches from tip of nose 
to end of tail. 
Nkw Inlet at Shinneoook Bay.— A Good Ground, L. I., 
correspondent writes that a now inlet to Shinnecock Bay was 
opened Feb. 19. This will lower the bay, which will then 
furnish fine red head and broad bill shooting. The prospects 
are for better duck shooting this year than for several pre- 
vious seasons. 
Pennsylvania.— A correspondent writes from Gettysburg 
of the sport there : 
“ Wo generally have good quail shooting, and ruffed grouse 
aro quite abundant within six or eight miles of town A 
woodcock killed Dec. 27, 1877. Was that not unusuaUy late?’’ 
C. 
Greenville Sportsman 's Club.— The officers for the ensu- 
ing year are: Pres., Wm. McDowell ; Vice-Pres., J. H. Phil- 
lips : Sec., M. Hargood Brooks; Treas., C. R. Beatty. 
A Large Eagle. — On the 24th ult., L. B. Cushman, editor 
of the North East (Pa.) Sun, shot a gray eagle on the beach o- 
Lake Erie that measured seven feet six inches from tip to tip 
The bird is now in the hands of a taxidermist, and will soon 
grace the Sun sanctum. This is supposed to be one of the 
largest eagles ever shot in the United States. 
Tennessee— Columbia, Feb. 20.— A long and delightful sea- 
son of bird shooting came to an end on the 14th. Sportsmen 
are now amusing themselves and tapering off by knocking over 
rabbits and toppling out squirrels. A party of three gentlemen 
were out on the 19th, and bagged fifteen rabbits, which places 
them at the head of rabbit score. No good bags of squirrels 
taken yet. Val. 
Nashville, Feb. 21.— Game hereabouts, particularly of the 
smaller kinds, has been very plentiful this season. Quail 
(commonly called partridges throughout the South) have 
been very abundant, good bags having been made within 
sight of the city. A number of deer have been brought to 
market, but they came from a distance. A few wild turkeys 
are still to be found in some parts of the country. Rabbits 
have been so numerous that in some sections “battues’ - have 
been gotten up to rid the country of them. 
South Carolina— Charleston, Feb. 23.— Very little hunting 
has been done the last ten days, and have heard of only a 
few small bags of partridges and five turkey brought on. 
Weather has been quite rainy and warm, driving the ducks, 
which were in large quantities a short time since, further 
North. Ybnots. 
Texas— Galveston, Feb. 17.— Ducks are getting somewhat 
wild, but jacksnipe are found in great numbers on the main- 
land. A party of twenty killed over two hundred a few days 
since in a day's hunting. C. 0. 
Illinois — Lebanon, Feb. 17.— Ducks and geese have begun 
their spring migration. Expect good shooting in a few days. 
A Wilson snipe straggler was killed here Jan. 26. Snipe, as a 
rule, never appear here before March 1. W. L. J. 
65 
Wild Pigeons— Lebanon, III., Feb. 17.— Wild pigeons have, 
for the last few weeks, been quite abundant in the Kaskaskia 
River bottom, t weuty miles south of this city. Are now plenty 
here, and have for two days been passing southward. 
W. L. J. 
A Prairie Wolf Chase. — The farmers of Harris Prairie, 
Ind., have been much troubled for three years past by the 
depredations upon their flocks of a huge gray wolf. The 
wolf was often seen, but was so sly that hunters seldom got 
a shot at her. Twice her litters were captured, but she es- 
caped, and her inroads on the flocks in that vicinty have ag- 
gregated a loss to the farmers of over $1,000. She has been 
known to kill six or eight sheep in one night, and had become 
such a terror in the neighborhood that some of the farmers 
sold their flocks. Two weeks ago a party started on the chase, 
agreeing to keep up the hunt until she was captured. The 
pursuit lasted six days, when she was tracked into a clump 
of woods, surrounded by the entire force, and finally brought 
down. She was found to be 3J feet in height, and over 6 
feet long. 
Iowa— Mason City , Feb. 18.— The prospects are for a fine 
supply of pinnated grouse here during the coming season. A 
great quantity of birds here this winter. T. 
Noted Hunters of Montana.— Our stated correspondent, 
Mr. L. F. Whitman, of Detroit, has kindly sent us the fol- 
lowing characteristic letter from Charles Kimball, of that 
city, who is now in Montana. Kimball is one of the popular 
athletes and sportsmen of Detroit, a member of the senior 
six crew of the Excelsior Boat Club, and other organizations. 
His letter is written to his father, and is dated Half -Creek 
Station, December , 1877: 
“* * . •* The ranchmen have all quit work and holed up 
for the winter, although it is the handsomest weather you 
ever saw. I am writing with the door open, like Mrs. Frazer, 
and if my window was not nailed in, I would have it opeu 
also. It consists of a single pane of glass stuck in a loop-hole. 
I have been out on a hunt for the last month with three of 
the oldest and best hunters in the Rocky Mountains. I will 
give you a description of them on the dime-novel scale. 
* * I will commence with Warren Craig, the champion shot 
of the Rocky Mountains. He stands six feet four in his 
moccasins, aud I should judge about forty years of age. He 
carries a double-barrel rifle that weighs sixteen pouuds a 
hunting ax, and a knife and belt, besides ammunition. The 
whole lot would make a load for a pack-mule. He will climb 
the highest Mountain, and never ceases walking from sunriso 
till sunset. He kills as much game as all the hunters put to- 
gether in the Territory. He never stops hunting except to 
change camp. He thinks a heap of me, and has given me a 
Winchester rifle that shoots sixteen times without reloading- 
also a dog ; and old Harvey, his partner, lets me have a 
horse ns long as I want one, to ride and pack my game on 
They want me to go north with them to the Cypress Mount- 
ains “no run buffalo this winter, but everybody advises me 
not to. They tell me that the country is full of hostile Indians 
and that Craig and Harvey have to tight their way in and out 
every time they go and come, and 1 have decided not to go 
as 1 don't care to go bareheaded the rest of my life, and I am 
not particularly fond of them any way (they are too clean) 
“But to continue my description. Next in rank comes 
Jno. Havey, alias Gnsley, the greatest bear hunter in the 
world. He bunts nothing else, but shoots everything in shape 
of an animal that crosses his trail, not excluding Uncle Barn’s 
pets, as he calls the Indians. He is a trifle less than six feet 
almost as broad as he is long, and will tackle a wounded bear 
or panther with a knife as soon as I would a cat. lie is sixty 
years of age, and as supple and spry as an athlete of twenty 
He speaks the language of four different tribes. His name 
is a terror to every Indian, horse-thief and road-agent in the 
country. He says that if Uncle Sam will give him permis- 
sion, he will pick twenty men in Montana and take a contract 
to rid the country of every Indian in it ; but he says he won't 
except the Indian agents that are appointed by the Govern- 
ment, for he says they are the men who make the trouble. 
R 0t £P^. tolcl me tlj at, but tried to persuade the Governor 
. w T . e n' t0ry t0 '7 nte c °ngress to that effect. He says 
that West Point graduates and men brought up in the States 
can t follow Indians in the brush. He is also a great lariat 
thrower, and has been known to catch a wolf on the run from 
a horse. He knows where all the best quartz beds are, and 
tells me when I make enough money to open one he will show 
it to me as rich as Montana affords. As for his part that 
aiu't what he is after. He says he has enough to keep him 
while he lives, and to take a trip to the States too, if he gets 
foolish enough to want to get sick and die in a hurry. He is 
all scars, from his head to his feet, and one shoulder pretty 
badly chewed up. I can’t see that it hindere him from eating 
any, for he will eat as much meat as any hound pup you ever 
saw. 
“ I will conclude with Bill Thurston, or Montana Bill as 
he is familiarly called— almost as tall as Craig, straight as an 
arrow, and full fifty years of age. He does not hunt a great 
deal now, because his eyes trouble him a little, but he says 
‘ If they wait till I get through squinting and find the bead I 
am sure death to them.’ He generally amuses himself by 
packing in the game and hauling it to town, for which he 
receives half. They say he is one of the men that helped 
hang the road-agents that troubled the first settlers of Mon- 
tana m ’01, '62 and '63. These are the kind of men that I 
have been hunting and associating with for the last month. 
They have not oniy enabled me to get a winter’s meat for 
myself and Ben., but with what I have sold have bought flour 
bacon, sugar, tea, coffee, dried fruit, potatoes— winter’s stock’ 
You may judge for yourself the amount of game 1 have killed 
when venison and elk bring only two and a half cents per 
pound, and skins from two bits to a dollar and a half each. 
I think I told you in a letter prior to this that the boys have 
with the exception of Ben. and Glover, gone in the sheep 
business together. They have rented a ranch about five 
miles from where I am now stopping. I have taken up my 
quarters on the Prickley Pear River, the next ranche to Ben's 
sheep ranche, and he is here the most of his time, and as you 
know he is a great hand to fish, I never want for trout, which 
abound here in great numbers. Charles Kimball. 
Californ^.— As an indication of the importance of the 
sporting interest in the State, the San Fraucisco Chronicle 
notes that a single firm in that city have sold, the present sea- 
son, 6,000 sacks of shot. 
Amende Honorable.— The following letter, which we 
cheerfully publish, will sufficiently explain itself: 
Danville, P. Q., Canada, Feb. 25, 187s. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I see by the last Forest and Stream ttiat you have got me down as 
violating our game laws. By referring to my last, you will see that I 
shot the cariboo ou Jan. Sth— not Feb. Stli. Please see lo this, as I am 
one of the last persons that will be found violating our game laws, uur 
close season for deer and cariboo Is from Fel). 1 to Sept. 1. . 
Yoars truly, j. c. Stockwbll. 
The Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun Srortsman's 
Trunk.— Messrs. Holberton & Co., of this city, exhibited at 
the St. Louis Bench Show, among other sportsmen’s goods, a 
very serviceable solid sole leather trunk and gun cose com- 
bined, large enough to hold 200 shells with complete outfit, 
including the gun. We notice that some of the St. Louis 
papers speak of this as the Turf Field, and Farm gun caee, 
but it was named the Forest and Stream's Sportsman's 
Trunk, and should be so called. 
New Apparatus for Testing Pattern and Penetration 
of Shot Guns.— Mr. H. O. Squires, of No. 1 Courtland st. , 
has exhibited to us a capital invention, by the use of which a 
great deal of the trouble and expense in making gun trials can 
be overcome. Any one who has undertaken a gun trial is 
aware of the cost of paper targets, and the consequent - time 
necessary to count the sheets of paper in order to get at the 
penetration. Mr. J. P. O’Neil’s invention consists of a single 
sheet of paper target of the ordinary size, laid off in squares, 
so that the pattern can be readily counted. The bull's-eye 
Las back of it a box some three feet loog supported on legs. 
In the frame work of this box sluts are cut, into which pieces 
of straw-board can be placed at intervals of about a half inch. 
The whole is supported on wooden legs. Now the method of 
determining the penetration is exceedingly simple. Each 
separate piece of card-board, 10x10 inches square, as it is 
traversed by the shot determines the penetration. At a glance 
the particular sheet of card-board which has been shot through 
experimenting to understand exactly what the penetration of 
bis gun is. We consider Mr. O’Neil’s invention an admirable 
one, as it does away with former cumbersome methods of 
gettiug at penetratiou. Persons desirous of seeing this new 
apparatus will do well to call on Mr. Squires. There ore 
many gentlemen owning guDS who are utterly Ignorant of 
what charge of powder they should use. By the use of Mr. 
O Neil’s contrivance a few easy experiments can satisfy them 
f ully as to the best method of loading in order to determine 
the power of their guns as to pattern and penetration. 
The Exact Measures of Oahbrks.— It may interest our 
readers to know what aro the exact measurements of the 
various gauges of guns most in use. We give the measure- 
ments to the thousandth of an inch : Calibres, 8, .860 of an 
£ 10 ’ d0- 12 ’ -760 d0 - d0 ' do-; do. 
16, .685 do.; do. 20, .627 do. 
SPRING AND SUMMER SHOOTING. 
r, „ Hartford, Conn., Feb. 14 1878 
Editor Forest and Stream : ’ 10 
I heartily approve of the suggestion of “Shot," made in a 
communication to your Dapcr under date of Jan. 20lh udou 
the subject of Spring aaid Summer Shooting. Ho aUud^ to 
the great diminution of snipe aud ducks perceptible m each 
returning winter. The cause of the diminution of the “rat 
named bird, we apprehend, Is not what Shot attributes it to 
Probability spring shooting is in a measure S 
sponsible for it Recently an account was given in vour 
paper of a gentlemen living near New Orleans who had killed 
mi l 0UrS 8b ° 0ll ,” g ’ ’ ,JC ° BDi P e ’ mure "um twice us 
many, we apprehend, than have been killed iu any spring f or 
ten years in the whole State of Connecticut. It is this dwlre 
Lnrw' if'ih^ 81 “, ba ? " w m a P' vun ,ime that is playing 
SfTw w, V , N - 0rth and Soulh > in tbc East and 
in the West. The slaughter is not confined to snipe, but ex- 
tends to woodcock, prairie chicken and ducks. In a recent 
number of your paper I saw an account of a boy near New 
Orleans who had killed 84 woodcock in a single day’s shoot- 
I am considered a good fair shot, and average ten days’ 
shooting each fall. Have shot for the last leu years, nud feel 
m. day r' 8 ! ramp , if J ““ briQ g t0 bag two brace of 
these birds. 1 he fact is, the desire to make a great bag in 
those sections of country where our migratory birds are found 
in such numbers, is gradually, indeed I may say rapidly 
making it almost impossible to make any bag at all in sections 
of the country less favored in this matter of game thon some 
of the Southern States. 
Prairie chickens iu the Western States are becoming with 
each year less numerous. The cause is very evident : sports- 
men vie with each other iu bagging the greatest number in » 
given day. The character of the ground in which these birds 
are found— an open country— makes the bird an easy target, 
and it is no uncommon occurrence fdr a medium shot to kill 
fifty in a day. Surely what pleasure can there be iu shooting 
where such results are so easily accomplished. 
Again, I apprehend that when such large numbers of birds 
ore killed they are too frequently wasted. A few years ago the 
writer saw in a freight car In the depot of the Dubuque nnd 
Sioux City road, at Dubuque, an immense stock of prairie 
chickens, which were being shipped in that form to Chicugo 
The weather was warm, it being ther latter part of August 
and it is quite probable that when the birds reached Chicugo 
they were entirely spoiled. 
KilliDga very large numhor of birds in a given time must 
take away the real pleasure. What gives zest to shooting is 
not to kill the greatest number of birds in a given day, but to 
do the work skillfully. I sincerely hope that our sporting 
friends will he satisfied with smaller hags, and thereby let 
the birds multiply, so that years of sporting may be had by 
ourselves and those that come after u?. Small Bag. 
Chilled Shot— Jacksonville, III., Feb. 11.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: I notice in your issue of Feb. 7th, a communica- 
tion from H. W. Knowlton, which, to my mind, is very sensi- 
ble. I have not used the Tatham chilled shot, but 1 intend to 
if its killing power is greater than the soft shot. 1 have used 
the English chilled shot in the field, and I camo to the conclu- 
sion last season that its killing power was do greater than the 
soft, or, in other words, I could not do any better shooting 
with it or get more game than I could with the soft shot. The 
fact of chilled shot giving better penetratiou at a paper pad at 
forty yards, is no proof to me that its killing power is greater 
on game. There are sportsmen who contend that soft shot will 
give better penetration at a paper pad with common powder, 
it giving less velocity than the higher brands of powder. The 
shot, on striking the paper pad, is not flattened to that extent 
so as to prevent its penetrating. But who will contend that 
common powder has greater killing power at forty yards than 
the best brands ? My experience is, the better the powdor 1 
use the more game I get, killing it at longer distances. What 
I would like to see is a practical test of the killing powers of 
the cltilled and soft shot on birds at various distances, all 
things being equal as far as possiblo. George Hayden. 
CHILLED VS. SOFT SHOT. 
New Rochelle, N. T., Feb. 8, 1878. 
Editor Forest akd Stream and Rod and Gch : 
I notice the recent experiments reported by you In yonr paper of Jan. 
81, made with eight different shot-guns, for the purpose of testing soft 
and chilled shot In penetration, the targeting bolng only secondary. 
Each were No. 18 's, owned by different gentlemen, and loaded with 4 
drs, powder and 1J £ os. shot by measure, not weight. Each gun tired 
but one round, and the one barrel of chilled and the othtr of comrnou 
soft sho., In this trial preference is given lo chilled over soft shot. 
In carefully looking over the report, I am free to say there appears 
to be some advantage in the use of chljled over soft shot. Yet this 
gain appears to be much less than I could have hoped and anticipated. 
It will be seen that two of the eight guns gave a much better target with 
thosofc than with the chilled ahot,andoneotheflnearly tied. That of the 
whole number of pellets thrown In the sixteen loads, 6,144, the aggre- 
gate galu in the targets of the chided over the soft was but two per 
cent.— a gain, to be sure, but so smoU as to leave It possible that the ro_ 
su is may be reversed hereafter. Yet I do not believe they wUl ; atui, I 
am not fully satisfied with this trial as to targeting, aud I believe the 
public will be highly pleased to see these trials pushed to their end. 
The penetration seemed to be, so far as tho experiments went, lu favor 
tue [IUUII.UIII1 aueci ui uuu-uumu nmeuuusuecasmil lliryUL’U ' ...... . . , . 
, . , r „ 1 he penetration seemed to be. so far as tho experiments went, lu favor 
can be seen. Instead of carrying into the field a lot of targets, | of chilled shot, but I think several other trials should be made to set 
a small package of these card-boards will enable the persoa this subject at rest, and especially at two or more distances— say forty 
