Sept. 2, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
375 
One of the things that puzzle those who know 
nothing of guns and gunnery is the fact that 
one man manages to hit his mark very nearly 
every time, while another cannot come anywhere 
near that standard of excellence, even if he 
practices all day long. 1 say this is a matter 
that strikes the man in the street as more than 
strange, and when we come to go into it and 
think it out, it is scarcely to be wondered at 
In rifle shooting the difficulty seems to the on¬ 
looker to consist in getting the one bullet on 
to the target or the bullseye. The onlooker 
knows that the rifle contains one bullet only, 
and he not unnaturally surmises that much diffi¬ 
culty is experienced and much judgment called 
for to accurately place that one small bullet fair 
and square on the target at ranges varying from 
200 to 1,000 yards or more. When he sees this 
done time after time, he concludes the firer is 
a good shot. 
In which respect he is quite right, but when 
he comes to consider the ordinary gun, which is 
used at ranges from eighteen to forty-five yards, 
and when he finds that each shot fired represents 
from an ounce to an ounce and an eighth of 
shot (roughly put at, say, 300 peliets per charge), 
he cannot understand how any mark can pos¬ 
sibly be missed by at least part of this leaden 
hail. And this is the very difficulty that those 
who know cannot explain to those who do not 
know. I question, indeed, if it really can be ex¬ 
plained to the man who cannot take a gun and 
find it out for himself. 
Certainly at first sight it would seem that given 
a gun with a charge of 300 pellets of shot, al¬ 
most any object moving rapidly or slowly at 
any distance this side of forty-five yards could 
not fail to be struck with some portion of the 
charge. Try it. After some practice proficiency 
will probably come to you, but it must still be 
borne in mind that there are men who never 
will be able to shoot, no matter how they try, 
and this, quite apart from any unsoundness of 
eyesight or nervous affection. It all lies in a 
correct appreciation of alignment, and there are 
men who never could be taught the art of align¬ 
ment. Needless to say of such men that no 
amount of practice will ever make them pro¬ 
ficient; there is a want of unison between hand 
and eye that puts such a consummation out of 
the question. A fair idea of the necessity for 
holding straight may be got from firing at a 
stationary target. Newspapers against a fence 
will do, but an iron target whitewashed after 
every shot is the right thing to use. Given a 
target of this sort three feet square set up in a 
field and forty yards measured off from it, there 
should be no difficulty in hitting it every time, 
but distributing the shot evenly over its center 
is a different matter, as the best man among us 
may easily demonstrate for himself if he cares 
to try. It is not as easy as it looks to place the 
central pellets of the charge in the center of a 
stationary target, firing in the ordinary way from 
his shoulder. He might then make a shrewd 
guess as to why he missed so many long shots 
at partridges last season, and how he made such 
a mess of those tall flying ducks in December. 
Lastly, he might learn that, do his best, he con d 
not always place his charge in the center of the 
target, and he would then know that practice, 
though it might assist him, won d never make 
him thoroughly proficient, and that his fate was 
to remain among the huge and ever-increasing 
army of moderate shots. 
No man should seek to avoid this standard 
of proficiency when the truth is brought home 
to him. Happy is the man who can calmly admit 
that he is but a moderate shot. I will go bail 
that man enjoys himself to the fullest at every 
c hoot he goes to. How often have I come home 
with a man who did nothing but bewail the 
missing of this duck or the wounding of that 
partridge. He works himself up with a perfect 
misery because he has not killed everything he 
fired at. He considers himself a crack shot, and 
comes home miserable over his failure. He 
needs to get out in the field with his target and 
learn some new facts that would undeceive, if 
not astonish, him. Practice is good, but it is 
not everything. All the same, practice will show 
us what we are, and it is much better to know 
that than to make ourselves miserable by think¬ 
ing ourselves what we are not. W. R. Gilbert. 
Biltmore Doings. 
Marshfield, Ore., Aug. 25.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: On Aug.7 we arrived at Cass Lake,Minn., 
and spent the day in the National Forest there. Our 
hosts, G. T. Marshall, the senior supervisor; Wm. 
O’Neil, of the Department of the Interior, and 
Mr. Benedict, a Biltmore man, supplied us with 
launches, which took us around the lake. We 
visited first the Indian reservation and then Star 
Island, which is in the middle of Cass Lake. At 
Star Island the conditions for the practice of 
forestry are probably the most ideal in the 
United States. The island is star-shaped, is sur¬ 
rounded by water and has a large lake in its 
center. With water so abundant and easily ac¬ 
cessible, danger from fire is practically nil. The 
island now is wed wooded, the stands averaging 
20,000 feet to the acre. In this National Forest 
stringent fire rules are enforced and fire lanes 
200 feet wide are insisted upon along the rights 
of way of the railroads. 
Our next stop was at the Glacier National 
Park. We left our car at Belton and walked 
to Lake McDonald, which is one of the most 
beautiful lakes of the Northwest. We had here 
our first impression of the grandeur < 3 f the 
Rockies. The lake is surrounded by gigantic 
peaks, many of them snow-capped and contain¬ 
ing huge glaciers. The shores of the lake are 
heavily wooded with western larch, cedar, white 
pine, Douglas fir and sub-alpine fir. Larch and 
stands containing 70,000 feet to the acre were 
new sights to us. We rode about twelve miles 
to the upper end of the lake and spent the day 
in the woods under the guidance of H. C. 
Thompson, one of the forest rangers. 
Geo. T. McCaskie, Class President. 
Genesee County Kennel Club. 
Thus far 130 special prizes are listed for the 
seventh annual Dog Show of the Genesee 
County Kennel Club, at Batavia, N. Y., Sept. 20- 
23, inclusive. Entries close Sept. 9. Address E. 
H. Edsall, Superintendent, for further particu¬ 
lars. The officers are: President, E. M. Vail; 
First Vice-President, F. B. Parker; Second Vice- 
President, Richard Peck; Secretary, Albert E. 
Brown; Assistant Secretary, E. F. Short; Treas¬ 
urer, W. W. Ware; Judges, A. E. Quaife, Bos¬ 
ton terriers; Karl Bjurman, all other breeds. 
Mrs. White’s ’Gator. 
Pitcairn, Pa., Aug. 23. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: The alligator shown in the accom¬ 
panying picture was killed by my niece, Mrs. 
Charles White, in Lake Lena, near Auburndale, 
Fla., in May last. Its length was 12 feet 5 inches 
and it weighed 489 pounds. I think it is a record 
breaker for a lady to kill. R. K. Boyer. 
ALLIGATOR KILLED IN LAKE LENA, FLORIDA, BY MRS. CHARLES WHITE. 
