582 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 15. 1911. 
of ten shots. They squabbled over the shells 
that fell into the long grass, and were so eager 
to recover them that 1 asked what they wanted 
them for, thinking it merely a boy fancy to add 
them to the marbles and bits of string in their 
pockets. But no; one boy explained that they 
intended to cut off the heads of parlor matches, 
put one in each shell, bend the copper mouth 
down tightly, place the shell on a rock and ex¬ 
plode it with a stone. In his imagination it 
“made a big noise,’’ he confided. And these are 
the sort of boys so many good people are at¬ 
tempting to train into the belief that a "noise¬ 
less Fourth of July’’ is good for them. 
* * * 
Two small darkies joined the others. One of 
them they called “Hound. ’ I asked why. Show 
him,’’ urged the white boy, whereupon the black 
lad loped off through a thicket, yelping in a per¬ 
fect imitation of a long-eared hound that we had 
frequently seen on the trail of a swamp rabbit. 
“Go for ’im,” shriiled the white lads; “hunt ’em 
up, Hound.” Later on the black returned, grin¬ 
ning sheepishly and his big eyes rolling, but not 
without pride in his achievement. 
* * * 
The old hound mentioned keeps up his in¬ 
terest in life by chasing a swamp rabbit daily, 
but the chase always ends in the same way. 
The rabbit, grown familiar with the hound’s 
habits, correctly gauging his speed, or lack of 
it, and evidently fond of hearing the music, leads 
the old dog over the paths and through the 
swamp thickets until weary, when he makes for 
a shed behind an old barn. The roof has fallen 
so that a corner is within a fair jump from a 
pile of boards on the ground, and here the dog 
always loses the trail, nor guesses that bunny 
is laughing at him from his secure perch behind 
some hay further up the slope. Men who would 
not hesitate to shoot game out of season know 
of this, but let the rabbit alone, respecting his 
ability to cope with his four-footed enemy. 
* * * 
I came on one of these men one day in the 
close season. He carried a gun and was fol¬ 
lowed by three rabbit dogs. “Hunting rabbits? 
No. Looking for a hawk that is after my 
chickens,” he replied to a query. And he was 
two miles from home and the haunts of the 
hawk in question. 
* * * 
One of the gunning shanties on the Hacken¬ 
sack meadows is within sight of a road along 
which I passed the other day. It is frequented 
by shooters in the wildfowl season, but deserted 
now. On the truck of the flagstaff sat a marsh 
hawk, serenely scanning the nearby meadow for 
a meal, seemingly conscious that it was safe 
from molestation. 
* * * 
Every camper who takes fire-arms into the 
woods should make a note of the following 
wrinkle: Carry with you a little tin box con¬ 
taining a lump of mutton tallow. Instead of 
smearing oil over firearms, rub a little tallow 
on the palm of one hand, then rub every steel 
part of rifle or revolver with that palm. The 
tallow is very tenacious and repels moisture, but 
unlike oil, does not soil clothing with which it 
may be brought into contact. Guns shot over 
salt water may be preserved in this way. 
Revolvers carried into the woods in leather 
holsters rust easily if the leather has not been 
water-proofed inside and out, for the spongy 
flesh side of the leather absorbs and retains 
moisture. Tallow rubbed in while hot will help. 
Your little lump of tallow is a good thing, too, 
for chapped hands and wind-blistered faces, 
especia’ly on snowshoe trips or in midsummer. 
Prepare the tallow by cutting it into small 
pieces and dropping these into a vessel of boil¬ 
ing water. Let this simmer for a while, then 
skim the tallow from the surface of the water 
and put in a convenient small metal box. In 
this way it remains as white as snow and free 
from salt. 
* * * 
There are few belter rifle cleaners than the 
knobbed brass rod and flannel patch, but no 
matter how careful one may be, occasionally the 
rod will cut through a tight patch, the latter will 
refuse to be pushed or pulied out, and you are 
in a predicament. Work the rod until it is 
loose in the patch, then drop a little oil down 
breech or muzzle and give it plenty of time to 
saturate the patch, when it will generally come 
away or release the rod. In cleaning the popular 
solid frame .22 caliber revolvers, a patch some¬ 
times sticks at the juncture of cylinder and bar¬ 
rel when cleaned from the muzzle with the cylin¬ 
der in place, but oil will help to remove the 
patch. For all .22 caliber arms the cleaning rod 
should be of hard brass 3/16-inch thick, and the 
patches rather small, cut from new flannel. 
I find that it pays to be very particular about 
cleaning rods. Soft brass is too easily bent, and 
any rod smaller than 3-16 gives poor satisfac¬ 
tion. The knob should be about 3-16 inch long, 
and the neck behind it fully an inch, tapering 
back slowly, and small enough just back of the 
knob to permit the edges of the patch to fold 
down and hold, whether the rod be pushed or 
pulled. If the ends of the knob be square cut, 
the patch will hold well. They should not be 
sharp, of course, so that they will cut through 
the patch, but rounding them is not advisable. 
* * * 
In the light of the failures of twenty years 
ago to make a satisfactory .22 caliber revolver, 
one little improvement employed to-day seems 
marvelous. The old difficulty was to secure a 
tight fit between cylinder and barrel, but at the 
same time to permit the cylinder to turn freely. 
In one of the new .22 caliber revolvers this is 
accomplished in this wise: While the hammer 
is being raised and the cylinder turned, there is 
quite a space between cylinder and barrel. When 
the hammer is cocked, out pops a little spring- 
actuated pin which pushes the cylinder against 
the barrel and holds it there until the arm is 
fired or the hammer lowered, when the pin is 
withdrawn It is one of the ingenious simple 
devices that serve their purpose well, and I for 
one doff my shooting cap to the inventor. 
Grizzly King. 
Some News and a Little Gossip. 
The 31-raters, Class P, will be the most popu¬ 
lar boats this season. This fleet is divided into 
two divisions, one racing in these waters and 
one around Massachusetts Bay. Three new 
ones are building for each division, and there 
may possible be more new craft. 
Efforts are being made to sail in an inter-city 
race off Marblehead in August after the disband¬ 
ing of the New York Y. C. cruise. Last year 
the Eastern 31-raters Amoret, Mavourneen and 
Timandra, of Massachusetts, met Cara Mia, 
Windward and Crescent of these waters in a 
series of races off the Atlantic \. C. at Sea 
Gate and Amoret won. 
The new yachts for this class, which is one of 
the best for racing and cruising, are being built 
for New York and Eastern yachtsmen, and the 
racing promises to be of the best. The Man- 
hasset Bay challenge cup has been the incentive 
in local waters. This cup was won last year by 
Stuyvesant Wainwright’s Cara Mia, that yacht 
representing the American Y. C., defeating the 
Windward, of the Indian Harbor Y. C., and 
Mavourneen, of the Corinthian Y. C., of Marble¬ 
head. 
Cara Mia will defend the cup again this year 
and will have to meet a fleet of new yachts. 
The Seawanhaka-Corinthian Y. C. has challenged, 
and a syndicate of members is having a boat 
built at Herreshoffs’. Commodore W. H. 
Childs, of the Indian Harbor Y. C. is having a 
boat built at Herreshoffs’ to be named Joyant. 
It is reported, too, that new boats are building 
from Gielow, Gardner and Mower designs. 
In Eastern waters there are the old boats 
Amoret, owned by C. B. Wheelock; Timandra, 
owned by J. B. Fallon, Jr., and four new boats 
building from designs by George Owen. One, 
named Sayonara. is for Vernon F. West, of the 
Portland Y. C., and another is for George Lee, 
who sold Mavourneen. These Eastern boats are 
after the cup race and will compete in these 
waters during Larchmont week. 
If the New York boats can be induced to visit 
Marblehead for an inter-city match the races 
will be sailed off Marblehead under the auspices 
of the Corinthian Y. C. Aug. 17, 18 and 19.^ 
In the Manhasset cup race the Eastern Y. C. 
will be represented by J. B. Fallon’s Timandra, 
the Boston Y. C. by George Lee’s new boat, the 
Corinthian Y. C. by C. B. Wheelock's Amoret 
and the Portland Y. C. by Vernon F. Wests 
Sayonara. 1 he local boats will be Joyant, the 
new Seawanhaka boat, the Gardner boat and the 
defender, Cara Mia. 
The South Jersey Yacht Racing Association 
held a meeting at the Yachtsmen’s Club, Phila- 
