1875 . 
21 
actions of the present day, keeping this law ever in i 
their minds? I think not. I believe that in the me- 
chanism of most of the breech-loaders now before the 
public, strength, durability and a scientific principle of 
construction are too often sacrificed to obtain quickness 
of manipulation. The same fallacy seems to prevail 
here, as elsewhere, that the “ quickest way is the best 
way.” 
I am well acquainted with the working parts, and 
mechanical principles of most of the breech-loaders 
now so prominent, and will here speak of what I believe 
to be the merits and demerits of each; declining how- 
ever to point out my individual gun. In this country 
there are very few men who shoot so constant!}' as they 
do in England, and this alone is one reason, and the 
main one, why guns of inferior materials and workman- 
ship can be sold here with more impunity than in the 
old country. To serve a patron there with an inferior 
article, would insure not only the loss’of his future cus- 
tom, but also that of all his friends. 
Sportsmen here, are not so particular, or perhaps I 
might say, clanish, and the rule seems to be, that each 
must look out for his own interest; and this is why I 
hold that it is so necessary the young sportsman in 
especial, should have the advice of older and perhaps 
wiser heads, in order to prevent his making mistakes, 
and enduring disappointments. The objections that I 
have to the now fashionable “snap-action” are in brief, 
as follows: In the first place, in order to give them this 
automatic action, there must be a spring. All springs 
are liable to break, and in some of these guns when 
this happens, in order to put in a new spring, the gun 
has to be entirely dismantled. Of ci.urse, this is but a 
small matter for the gunsmith in his shop, with all his 
tools and duplicate parts at hand; but it is a very differ- 
ent ma tier if the sportsman happens to be on the 
moors or prairies with no gunsmith at hand, or perhaps 
within a hundred miles of him! But suppose that 
no .«uoh breakage ever occurred, there arc other and 
stronger objections to be made to snapactions. As the 
springs in these actions are necessarily small and pos- 
sessed of but slight power; the bolts must be so arranged 
as to play with great ease, disabling them still more for 
resisting the immense strain to which they are subjected 
every time the gun is fired. 
To make matters still worse these locking-bolts are 
pla.ed not where they can make the most, but the least 
resistance to the strain, viz. : Underneath the line of 
fire; and they are not assisted by any contrivance for 
holding the barrels back against the false breech. In 
the muzzle-loader the barrels are held back to the 
break-off by the hooks of the patent breech in the rear, 
and held down to the stock by the same means, and by 
the bolt'in the fore end of the stock. 
Another objection to be urged against top lever 
breech-loaders, as they are called, or breech-loaders, on 
which the ^actuating lever is placed between the ham- 
mers, is that in order to connect this lever with the 
locking bolts beneath, a pin or connectmg rod is intro- 
duced, which passes down behind the false breech 
and between the locks, necessitating the cutting away 
of the wood of the stock just at the point where 
strength is most neede.!. When the Westley Richards 
action first came out, it was thought that all objections 
on this score had been overcome; but my own e.vperi- 
ence and that of many others has not proved this to be 
so. For those who shoot but seldom, and but little at 
a time, the snapactions may answer; but lor “the all- 
day-long shot, the rough and tumble, eager, scientific 
sportsman,” as Herbert calls him; the man wi o shoots 
day iu and day out for months together; take my word 
for it, the snap action is not and never can be the thing. 
It will, of course, be asked of me, is there then no 
breech-loader to which these objections does not apirly? 
I could answer at once. But instead of naming that 
gun I will ask a question. Why is it that in this 
country a man may recommend his shoemaker, his 
tailor, or even his seamstress, without being sus- 
pected of having any iaUrent in the work of the 
party recommended; yet the moment he speaks or 
writes of his preference for a particular make of gun, 
he is at once accused, spite of all assertions to the con- 
trary, of having a business interest in it or the maker, 
or both? In England a sportsman may speak or write 
his preferences for any parlicular gun, freely and 
without reserve, without incurring any such penalty; 
and I do not see why it should be different here. As 
I claim to write for the benefit of my brother sports- 
men, and not to advance the interests or increase the 
profits of any gunmaker in the world, I .shall not gi-* 
my preferences and my reasons for entertaining them. 
But I wish to call attention to these facts, and to learn 
the views of others. 

DUCK SHOOTING FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
[The writer of the above is a gentleman well known to N. Y. 
sportsmen. He is now in his seventy-fourth year and capable of the 
longest days tramp with the beet of the boys. We have nut author- 
ity to publish his name which othenviee we should like to have 
given.— Ed. R. &. G.] 
It is going a good ways back, but I can’t help it, I did 
it then, and a good deal of it too. Our hunting ground 
was four miles above the city of Hudson, east side of 
the river, and onposite what was familiarly known as 
“Four-mile Point.” There the channel runs close upon 
the west shore, leaving a flat on the east side of many 
thousand acres which was nearly drained at low tide. 
Here the different varieties of duck, mallards, black 
duck, teal, redhead, bluebills, etc., would resort and 
feed on the valesueria and bulbous rooted plants every- 
where abundant. In the early part of fall shooting we 
usually hunted in a small canoe (dugout) and with one 
well trimmed with gras.sand rushes, and having a good 
paddler, we seldom failed during a flood tide to take as 
many ducks as we careil to carrj’ home. 
Before a frost comes (which makes the grass rushes 
noisy) we usuall}’ had a duck hunt by moonlight. We 
had fixed upon a night, the moon was at full, and all 
the other conditions were favorable; tide making in 
about 8 P. M. We (a brother- and myself) shoved off 
our little dugout and were soon working our way 
through the thick and heavy bulrushes, tide not 
yet half up. As there was nothing to be gained b}' 
haste, we took tilings leisurely and used up nearly an 
hour in going a mile and a half. I was to do' the 
shooting, my brother was a splendid paddler, indeed, 
the best I ever knew, and as I loved shooting and was 
a little lazy withal, I was always sore to remind him of 
his skill- We had cleared the -heavy rushes and .began 
to keep a sharp lookout. Just then, dead ahead, I saw 
some birds, a motion of my hand and the canoe was as 
still as if she had lain iu tlie woods forty years; in a 
whisper I said teal, for such I thought they were, and 
the next instant the old flint lock (Cherry-vallc}' we 
called her) belched out fire and smoke enough to have 
passed for a miniature volcano, and a report that waked 
the echoes of the old hills again. (We don’t have any 
such guus now-a-days) We were soon among the dead 
and wounded; the rushes were pretty thick, but we 
picked up seven black ducks, and didn’t look around 
much either; that was just a beginning. We 
then passed on more westward in clearer wa- 
ter, made three or four shots killing eleven. About 
lOo’clock we tofik our course shoreward, making for a 
broad bay, a favorite night feeding ground. We soon 
heard the noise and cackle of an immense flock, busy 
feeding. We approached them cautiously, Ihe ducks 
being iu the shade of the heavy timbered bay and we m 
the moonlight. Here we fell in with another party, 
Robert Lero}' Livingston, in pursuit of llie same game. 
He was a genuine sportsman, a splendid shot, and gen- 
tleman every inch, though over six feet. The two ca- 
noes were held together, and his paddler put us as near 
the ducks as we could get without flushing them , they 
evidently suspicioned us and played shy. We took the 
chances at long range, I gave the word and we fired 
simultaneously ; you may believe there was some noise 
just then ; tlie re|)ori of those two large guns, the roar 
of the thou.saiul ducks as they rose frightened and hur- 
riedly was enough to have seared a young ludhui out of 
a year’s growtl* We picked iq) twunty-oiie, and some 
wounded no doubt escapeil in the dense shore-grass, 
certain prey for the large owl and dnek-hawk. By this 
time it was flood-tide, everything once visible was now 
under water ; no more duck to be seen or heard ; they 
had left their feeding-ground and had gone to more open 
waters where they could rest iinilistiirhed. After an- 
other half-hour search, finding no more game, we con- 
cluiicd to give up the hunt, hade g' loi^night to our friend 
and turned towards our boat landing. Thai was as 
well, for we discovered that iheinomi was being eel ip.sed 
and already one-third covered by the earth’s shadow. 
Just then I saw two pretty large objects on the watir; 
1 supposed they were geese, but they separated, I drew 
a bead on them and we picked up four mallards ; not 
one escaped to loll their fate. We were soon at our 
landing ; the moon hud hid her face entirely, leaving 
us iu.the daik. We counted thirty four, all black ex- 
cept the four mallards- We secured what we couldn’t 
conveniently carry in the locker in the bow of our dug- 
out, and were home again shortly after midnight. I 
could tell something about shore “duck shooting” 
about these days ; but if ever I do, it will be “ after 
this.” Doct’r. 
Game preservation even in a densely populated 
country like France has some profitable uses when we 
learn that on a single estate of moderate acreage over 
36,000 head of game (including rabbits) were killed du- 
ring the past season. If every body had fished and 
shot at his own will what would have been the conse- 
quence. 
WESTERN ITEMS. 
[by our own correspondent.] 
Chicago. — Snch spring dnek shooting as we have for the past week 
has never been equaled around Chicago. On the 26th the Calumet riv- 
er began to open, and the 26th in a light rain the blue-bill and bntter- 
ball commenced pouring in. All the lakes and sloughs were frozen 
solid, nothing was open but the river, and out of this you conld not 
keep the ducks. The 26th and 27th Mr. Abner Price killed 230; 
Messrs Waller and Pickett 180, and Abe Kleinman, including the 
28th, over 300, and all this within litteen miles of the center of a city 
of over 400,000 inhabitants ! The very warm weather of the 29th 
and 30th opened the lakes and sloughs and scattered the ducks more, 
but as they could only be numbered by millions the shooting still 
continued fair, Messrs Ed. Price and David Bates making a bag of 
53 in half a day on the 30th. The snipe, too, are putting in an 
appearance, but they, as well as most of the docks are poorer than 
Job's turkey, so that one can almost see through them; this also 
seems true of the different varieties of plover; they all show what a 
hard winter they have been through. The water is very high, and 
the prospect for good snipe snooting is betser*than I have eycr seen 
it before. On the 31st and Ist several large parties left for the 
marshes of Grass Lake and Fox River, Wisconsin, but as yet no re- 
port has been received from them further than that the ice is yet re- 
ported to be firm in that section. Of course no trap shooting is 
thought of, and none has been done since the last scores I sent you. 
The current in the Calumet and Kankakee and Illinois rivers is very 
strong and several accidents have occurred lately, through boats 
having been overturned by it. Friday a large flock of red-heads lit 
in Chicago river near Lake street bridge, where they sat for over an 
hour, the observed of all observers, and the same day several quite 
large flocks of geese and brant lit on the prairie two miles inside the 
city limits. 
I am credibly informed that the ice is so extensive in Lake Erie 
and covers so completely the entire surface of the lake, that tho 
water has lost its proportion of oxygen, and that the fish are starv- 
ing in consequence. A crevice having been opened in the ice at Port 
Dover, the fish rushed to it and leaped upon the ice in their eager- 
ness to get oxygenized water. We have now another story— quite 
as noteworthy, showing how unnsually extensive is the ice cover- 
ing of the lakes. Large numbers of ducks on Huron arc flying to 
the shore and dropping exhausted, to die of starvation because they 
find no water in the lake, and consequently are deprived of their sup- , 
ply of food. It does not follow, of course, from the above state- 
ment, that there is no open water in Lake Huron. But the fact that 
the water fowl are dying in the manner stated shows conclusively 
that they starve to death in their search for the open water in which 
they get their food. We arc fold the numbers of fowls found dead 
along tiie shore are very great, and that the circninstance is entirely 
irtiprecedentcd, so far as is known among the inhabitants of that 
region. 
From all parts of the country we receive indications of prepara- 
tion on the part of the various Sportsmens’ Club to be fully repre- 
sented at the National Convention which meets in this city next 
June. It will unquestionably be the largest and most important 
meeting of the kind ever held in this country and cannot fail to 
liave an important influence iu favor of the in^ne perfect protection 
of game. It will, however, he liardly creditable to the shooting 
clubs already organized in this city, and who own large reserved 
tracts in the neighborhood of Sandusky Bay, that they have per- 
mitted the pot hunters of Sandusky to slaughter the poor thin 
dneka this spring by hundreds) in defiance of the game law. A 
little activity on the part of Cleveland sportsmen would prevent this 
sort of thing. It is not too late yet to look after those enterprising 
shooters who are killing a hundred and fifty birds a day.— C’fcfs/and 
LeaiUr. 
Thi wateks of the Illinois River have become so corrupted as not 
only to kill the fish lliereiu at Joliet. Mciiis, and .Marseilles, but to 
cause (ilisease among those who dwell; along the banks. At 
Marseilles, III., wagon-loads of dead fi-sb are found daily iu the mill- 
races, frequently stopping the maeliiiiery. 
A pepf.AK tree was fellt:d oil Mr. A, M. Diggiiis farm. Noble 
Co., lud,, Irom which was sawed five twelve-foot and two ten foot 
lo"8. The tree measured five feel across the butt, and the log next 
to”tho limbs measured three feet iu diameter. The top measuredS 
twenty feet, wliich makes the entire length of the tree, exclusive of 
stump, one hundred feet. 
We lenni Ih.at in Indiana there is a new method of fishing at tho 
lakes. It consists of a small house 'ouilt on runners like lliose of a 
sleil. in which is placed a small stove, while in the lloorasmall aper- 
ture is left till ougli which to dio|i the lines. Holes .are cut in I ho 
ice, the houses are moved over them and the fishennen sit by a 
warm stove while drawing iu the fish. Beveral of these houses aro 
now in use. There is not much of sport in this " new method;” it 
is a safe kind of pot fishing.” 
PLocK ol geese were canght in one of our western whirlwinds, 
lately, and are said to have been stripped of their feathers as bare as 
if lUey bad been plucked. M e tell it as told. 
TuEtbAKASAc has aflorded pickerel by ihoueauds tiils.lvlntcr 
Good for the trout. 
s 
