410 
full stocked barrels, I judge, to be about forty- 
four inches long, and I should say somewhere 
between eighty-five and one hundred round balls 
to the pound. 
I judge this length from the fact that one of 
them belonged to a little man named Paxton in 
the Pink Beds. He stood about five feet three 
inches, just a little shorter than I was, and he 
had a rifle that caught him just about his eye¬ 
brows; when he wanted to load it he would stick 
the butt off about four feet so as to get at the 
muzzle. I was using a breech-loader at the time. 
When all hands shot my rifle, I could beat them; 
when they shot theirs against mine, they could 
beat me. I should say, though, that their limit 
was about a three-inch circle at seventy yards, 
if I remember rightly. We seldom shot over 
sixty or seventy yards. That is, off-hand; we 
never shot at rest. 
I have never shot a flint-lock rifle, but I have 
shot flint-lock duelling pistols. Sometimes I 
could detect no difference, or hardly any, between 
them and percussion. At other times there was 
a distinct interval: puff— — bang. 
Possibly with those accustomed to them from 
long practice, and with expert knowledge as to 
what kind of edge on the flint gave the surest 
and quickest fire, they were not so bad. 
Captain Hawker, who, after the invention of 
fulminating powder, claims to have invented the 
common form of gun cap, which he showed to 
Manton, nevertheless heaves a sigh of regret for 
the flint lock. 
In consequence of the quick explosion of the 
percussion, it is so easy to learn to shoot birds 
flying with it that any butcher’s apprentice may 
in a short time learn to shoot as well as a gen¬ 
tleman. 
WORCESTER QUAIL DOING WELL. 
Quail in the vicinity of Worcester, Mass., ap¬ 
pear to be surviving the winter, according to 
Deputy Commissioner J. N. Snell, who is active 
in the cause of winter feeding. He said that 
danger to the birds lay in the possibility of a 
thaw followed by freezing, which might form 
an impenetrable crust on the snow and prevent 
them from reaching the grain beneath. 
VERMONT FISH AND GAME LEAGUE. 
The convention at Rutland was a notable suc¬ 
cess both in numbers and interest. On Thursday 
the session was attended not only by wardens, but 
by some 175 interested persons as well. The war¬ 
dens held a session by themselves in the evening 
for the discussion of plans, etc. 
In addition to the general discussion of Thurs¬ 
day there were addresses or speeches by Dr. 
Palmer and D. W. Huntington. The Opera House 
was filled to capacity in the afternoon to hear Mr. 
Baynes and see his pictures. The children of the 
public schools of Rutland were present. The 
speakers at the banquet were Dr. Palmer, Mr. 
Huntington and Charles Sheldon. The attend¬ 
ance at the banquet was 300. The sessions were 
marked by much seriousness and attention and 
were real sessions for a real purpose. 
Governor David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, 
promised his support in the campaign for the re¬ 
forestation of wild lands at a recent meeting of 
the Springfield Fish and Game Association. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
HUNTING IN CALIFORNIA. 
By “Golden Gate.” 
Figures are now being compiled by the Fish 
and Game Commission on the number of deer 
slain in California during 1913, and from incom¬ 
plete figures it is believed that about as many 
were killed as in the previous year. This is con¬ 
sidered a very good showing, inasmuch as the 
season in many counties was materially shorter, 
and averaged about eight weeks in most dis¬ 
tricts. According to official returns, 7,531 deer 
were killed in 1912 and so far the records for 
1913 show a total of 7,170 deer, with several 
sections to hear from. An interesting feature 
of the statistics at hand is the showing made by 
Monterey county, where 552 deer were bagged 
last year, as compared with 510 during the pre¬ 
ceding season, placing this county in the lead. 
In Santa Clara county a great gain was made 
last year over 1912, the total being 543, as com¬ 
pared with 350 the year before. In Marin county 
363 deer were killed and in San Mateo county 
202, quite a remarkable showing for districts ad¬ 
joining the largest city on the Pacific coast, with 
almost a million people within a radius of sixty 
miles. 
M. J. Connell, of Los Angeles, state fish and 
game commissioner, has been acquitted of the 
charge of having shot more ducks in one day 
than the law allowed. He was accused by J. N. 
Merritt, keeper of the San Joaquin Gun Club in 
Orange county. 
Game Warden Miller, of Ukiah, recently came 
upon five fine bucks in the new state highway, 
and in their efforts to get away two of them be¬ 
came entangled in a wire fence and sustained 
such injuries that they had to be killed. 
The Hearst laboratory of pathology of the 
University of California has just issued a paper 
on the precipitin test used by Frank C. Clarke, 
biological expert of the State Fish and Game 
Commission, in a recent case at Ukiah, where 
the entire case hinged upon the identification 
as venison of the meat offered in evidence. The 
paper tells in detail the story of the first convic¬ 
tion of the kind in America through the use of 
this test. Those who kill deer out of season will 
no longer be able to escape prosecution in the 
future by declaring that the meat is that of a 
bear, sheep, goat, or other animal, as has been 
the case in the past. 
A Laysan albatross has been presented to the 
University of California and is now on exhibi¬ 
tion in the museum of vertebrate zoology. The 
bird was purchased by a traveler after it had 
been captured on the deck of a wind-jammer 
off the Cape of Good Hope. 
VERMONT FISH AND GAME LEAGUE. 
At the annual meeting of the Vermont Fish 
and Game League, held at Rutland, March 5th, 
these officers were elected: President, John W. 
Titcomb, Lyndonville, Vt.; secretary, Edward 
Connell, Lyndonville, Vt.; treasurer, Chas. F. 
Lowe, Montpelier, Vt.; vice-presidents, R. L. 
Patrick, Burlington; W. H. Bradford, Benning¬ 
ton; M. R. Proctor, Proctor; C. S. Emerey, 
Newport; J. S. Viles, Montpelier; M. F. Barnes, 
Addison; W. D. Woolson, Springfield. Twenty- 
one applications for membership received favor¬ 
able action. 
“A SEARCH FOR THE APEX OF AMERICA.” 
The Andes Conquered. 
Annie S. Peck, M. A., who may well be proud! 
of the distinction of having outclimbed any mam 
in America, is the author of an attractive volume 
recently published by Dodd, Mead & Co., im 
which she recounts in a readable manner her ex¬ 
perience as a mountain climber in South Amer¬ 
ica. Miss Peck is constitutionally and tempera¬ 
mentally a globe trotter, and had at one time 
a predilection for the sea. Upon first glimpsing, 
the Matterhorn she transferred her allegiance to 
the mountains, and straightway qualified as a 
capable mountain climber by scaling what she 
chooses to call the “little” mountains of Switzer¬ 
land and Greece. Later, in California, she saw 
and conquered Cloud’s Rest and Mt. Shasta. 
Miss Cook learned that besides being able to 
endure the hardships and dangers of mountain 
climbing with the best of the men explorers, she 
had more than the usual capacity for telling of 
her experiences in a manner to command atten¬ 
tion and interest. Under the auspices of the 
New York “World,” in 1897, she attained the 
summit of Orizaba in Mexico, the highest alti¬ 
tude yet reached on the continent, and incidentally 
establishing a world’s record for women. 
The scientific value of the records made dur¬ 
ing this expedition was considerable, and Miss 
Cook’s standing as a contributor to topographic 
information could no longer be questioned. Im¬ 
pelled by the desire to conquer a virgin peak 
higher than any yet investigated, and establish a 
world’s record for men as well as for women, 
Miss Cook succeeded, after years of effort, in 
financing and organizing an expedition for the 
ascent of Mt. Sorasta (Illampu), in Bolivia. 
The wonderful story of her experiences from 
1903 to 1908 form the subject of the account as 
published by her in her latest volume, “A Search 
for the Apex of America,” including the difficult 
ascent of several lofty peaks on the southern 
continent, and a visit to the source of the Amazon. 
Besides being of value as a record of explora¬ 
tions into hitherto unknown territory, the book 
gives a fascinating account of the various inci¬ 
dents of the trip which lend an attractive touch 
of “human interest” to the story, and tells much 
of the life and customs of the natives of our 
sister continent, with whom we are all too little 
acquainted. 
Readers who are fond of traveling, and travel¬ 
ers who are fond of reading, will find in Miss 
Peck’s book a gripping and capable recital of one 
of the most remarkable and noteworthy undertak¬ 
ings ever successfully carried out by a woman. As 
exciting as a novel, as wonderful as a romance, 
“A Search for the Apex of America” is a con¬ 
tribution to the literature of geography and nat¬ 
ural history. 
The volume consists of 370 pages, is illustrated 
with sixty-four photographs by the author, and 
is attractive in get up. 
Circular letters advocating that the State 
Sportsmen’s Association be taken to task for al¬ 
leged misrepresentation in the matter of fish and 
game legislation were distributed over New York 
state recently by W. J. Kibbe, of Canandaigua, 
who believes that the game laws should be more 
liberal and less complicated. 
