FOREST AND STREAM. 
819 
r 
Nov. 21, 1908.] 
International Hunting Exposition. 
In the year 1910 an International Hunting Ex¬ 
position will be installed at Vienna, Austria, 
which will include the exhibition of everything 
connected with the sport and kindred industries. 
The sport of shooting has never been adequately 
presented, and its ethnographic development and 
economic importance have been neglected. Shoot- 
! ing, above all other sports, has greatly developed 
within the past few years, and around it have 
grown up great industries which the world at 
large will now, for the first time, have an oppor¬ 
tunity to see. 
The Austrian Ambassador at Washington, 
Herr Von Hagen Muller, has asked the Presi¬ 
dent to appoint an American Commission to take 
charge of the exhibit from this country. Presi¬ 
dent Roosevelt has appointed Major W. Austin 
Wadsworth, the President of the Boone and 
Crockett Club; Madison Grant, Secretary of the 
New York Zoological Society; Robert Bacon, 
Assistant Secretary of State; C. Grant La Farge 
and W. S. Whitehouse, a committee to attend 
to the matter. These gentlemen constitute prac¬ 
tically an American commission. They will 
appoint the various committees and subcommit¬ 
tees which will have the actual work in charge. 
The members of this committee are singularly 
fitted to take charge of such a work. Major 
Wadsworth, besides being a traveler of wide 
experience and a big-game hunter, is master of 
foxhounds at his home, in Geneseo, N. Y. Madi¬ 
son Grant’s interest in hunting, in zoology in 
general, and especially in the preservation of our 
native fauna, is well understood. Mr. White- 
house is an African traveler of wide experience, 
while Mr. La Farge knows well the north. 
The exhibition is to be devoted to hunting 
and shooting, with special consideration of the 
historical development of the sports and their 
economic value to industry, trade, art, agricul¬ 
ture, forestry and traffic. It will be held in the 
Rotunda and in the surrounding pleasure 
grounds of the Imperial Prater in Vienna, and 
will be opened in May and closed in October, 
1910. It is divided into four departments: shoot¬ 
ing and field sports, industry and trade, art and 
manufactures, agriculture and forestry. These 
departments will be again subdivided into more 
than fifty classes. A separate space will be al¬ 
lotted to every country including Austria, each 
country being represented by some building or 
pavilion characteristic of the country. Here 
are to be exhibited implements and arms em¬ 
ployed in the country owning the building. The 
exhibits of the economic departments will be 
placed in the other building. 
All countries are to be represented and com¬ 
mittees of foreign countries are expected to send 
delegates to represent them. Blanks for applica¬ 
tion for space may be had from the general man¬ 
agement of the exhibition, and copies of these 
blanks can now be had from Madison Grant, 11 
Wall street. 
No ground rent will be charged for places 
assigned to foreign countries for the erection 
of buildings and pavilions where their hunting 
exhibits are shown, but for the other spaces de¬ 
voted to economic exhibits a fee will be charged 
at so much a square meter. Articles for the ex¬ 
hibition must be delivered between the 1st and 
1 15th of April, 1910, or so much earlier as may 
I be necessary to get them ready on time. 
The management of the exhibition will look 
after the exhibition in general, but exhibitors 
must themselves make arrangements for the 
supervision and care of the exhibited articles 
and the place where they stand. Admittance to 
the exhibition will be by season and service 
tickets. 
Sportsmen and manufacturers of goods in¬ 
teresting to sportsmen will be interested in the 
blanks for space accompanied by classifica¬ 
tion programmes showing the different classes 
in which exhibits are to be put. They are 
printed in English. 
Sm&llbores for Wildfowl Shooting. 
New York, Nov. 7. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Discussion as to the relative powers 
of the 16- and 20-gauge shotguns, as compared 
with those of the standard 12-gauge, is recurrent 
and has exercised the attention and efforts of 
the best gun makers and sportsmen of Europe 
and America at different times in many past 
decades. The most exhaustive trials have con¬ 
vinced the parties at interest that for many rea¬ 
sons the 12-gauge is the most desirable shotgun 
for general use for upland and wildfowl shoot¬ 
ing. It will better accommodate itself to more 
sizes of shot from the smallest up to about 4s, 
than any other gauge, evenness of pattern and 
velocity therewith considered. Of course, the 
10- and 4-bores will shoot larger sizes of shot 
better than the smaller bores. The 12-gauge is 
quite light enough for the use of any man. 
While the 16- and 20-gauges will shoot as hard 
—not quite as hard, but practically as hard—as 
the 12-gauge, it must be kept in mind that they 
have a materially less killing circle and a more 
open pattern, as is reasonably to be expected 
when the reduced load of shot is considered. 
The 16-gauge requires closer holding than does 
the 12-gauge, the 20 closer than the 16, and 
the 28-gauge must be held much closer for good 
results than is necessary when using their larger 
brethren, because of the lesser loads of shot 
and the smaller and more open patterns in con¬ 
sequence. 
It is a reasonable assumption that only a very 
small percentage of sportsmen can use the 
smaller bores with sufficient skill to insure as 
satisfactory results as with the standard 12- 
gauge. 
The only advantage of the smaller bores is 
their relative lightness and consequent greater 
ease in handling. The cost of ammunition is a 
trifle less, but so insignificantly less as to be 
negligible as a matter of serious consideration. 
The 16- and 20-gauges are excellent guns for 
quail, woodcock, snipe and ruffed grouse, and 
for prairie chickens early in the season; but for 
wildfowl shooting or chickens late in the sea¬ 
son, a heavier load is required than can be used 
in the bores smaller than 12. 
It is possible that some shooters use the 
smaller bores quite successfully on wildfowl, but 
as aforementioned, extraordinary skill is essen¬ 
tial for satisfactory results. When the shooting 
is unusually difficult, the smaller bore is under 
a handicap in comparison with the more power¬ 
ful 12-bore. Still many men use the 16 and 20 
and 28, and some use even the 44. This brings 
the matter into the realm of individual fancy, 
and specially easy conditions of shooting, some¬ 
thing quite apart from the killing capacity of 
the bores in question. 
As to the proper loads to be used, there are 
no hard and fast rules concerning them. In a 
general way, the 16-gauge shoots best with 2*4 
to 2J/2 drams of bulk powder, and ounce to 
1 ounce of shot. The 20-gauge from 2 drams 
to 2j4 drams, and 24 ounce to ounce of shot. 
The number of grains which constitute a 
proper load of the dense powders for the best 
results varies to an important degree when some 
makes are compared with those of others. The 
user would do well to follow scrupulously the 
directions which accompany each separate brand. 
Infallible or Ballistite, 18 to 20 grains are suffi¬ 
cient for a 16, while 16 grains are sufficient for 
a 20-gauge. Twenty four to 27 grains of Shot 
Gun Rifleite, or 26 grains of Walsrode are about 
right for a 16, while for a 20-gauge the amounts 
respectively would be about 22 grains. T. he 
greatest care should be observed that no greater 
amount of powder is used than the makers ad- 
From Edmonton to the Arctic. 
The Edmonton Board of Trade has issued in 
booklet form the report of a committee on the 
transportation facilities in existence at the pres¬ 
ent time to the Peace, Finlay and MacKenzie 
River basins from Edmonton and return. The 
report gives in detail the mode of travel, dis¬ 
tance in miles, passenger and freight tariffs and 
the time tables from Edmonton to Athabasca 
Landing, Lesser Slave Lake, Peace River Cross¬ 
ing, Dunvegan and the Hudson Bay forts on th* 
streams mentioned. This is indeed an extra¬ 
ordinary opening up of the Northland, and en¬ 
ables people readily to learn how to get to many 
points about which hitherto they have only 
dreamed. 
Railroads are as yet unknown in that North¬ 
ern country, though some are projected; travel 
is by steamboat, canoe, wagon, horseback or on 
foot. Some of the trails are not adapted—ex¬ 
cept under expert guidance—to travel by the man 
who is absolutely green to the North, but there 
are others as safe and as easy as any route in 
Europe or the United States. 
The opening up of this country will appeal 
with special force to the hardy hunter, trapper 
or explorer who wishes to get away from the 
beaten track and to see things that his fellows 
have not seen. The hunting, the fishing, the 
wonderful scenery, the great lakes and superb 
rivers offer attractions that must appeal to many. 
This North country is no longer the land of 
mystery that once it was. Settlers, traders and 
prospectors have gone into it and exposed many 
of its secrets. The Northwest Mounted Police 
are found in its furthest corners. Nevertheless 
there are many hidden spots as yet unknown to 
white men. 
Edmonton is the natural outfitting place, and 
here everything in the way of supplies can be 
obtained. Here, too, may be had information 
as to all parts of the North, with just what may 
be expected everywhere. 
Interesting as a trip to this far Northern coun¬ 
try would be, none should take it without first 
learning everything possible about the country 
which he is to enter. This information will be 
readily furnished by A. C. Harrison, secretary 
to the Edmonton Board of Trade. 
