296 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 20, 1910. 
they would have been in that country where 
Indian fighting was constantly going on, and 
how eagerly sought for these repeating arms 
must have been by persons who but a short 
time before had known only the single-shot, 
muzzleloading flintlock gun. We believe that 
there is a tradition that during the late ’30s a 
company of Texas rangers was armed with re¬ 
volving pistols, and possibly also with revolving 
rifles, and that these proved so effective that the 
fame of the arm and its popularity at once be¬ 
came very great. It is quite certain that re¬ 
volvers were commonly in use during the 
Mexican war. 
Apart from its effectiveness in war, it further¬ 
more fitted in with peculiar utility in the needs 
of a new country. It became a favorite with all 
civil officers, later had great vogue among the 
cowboys, and was one of the main reliances of 
the settlers and miners of the West against the 
Indians, and the still more formidable white 
marauders. 
Throughout the vast area of the United States 
it won its way to popular adoption; in the 
turbulent sections doing much to bring law and 
order out of chaos. 
The wonderful skill of cowboys, hunters, 
guides, miners, scouts, bad men and town 
marshals with the Colt revolver is among the 
most thrilling traditions of what was known a 
few decades ago as the Wild West. Besides its 
practical utility in placing every man on an 
equality with his neighbors, it contributed im¬ 
measurably to the scope and smartness of the 
romantic literature of the West, which for many 
years flooded the market. 
In 1842, the Patent Arms Company went out 
of existence, its capital being exhausted. In 
1847, the war with Mexico was impending, and 
Colt secured a contract for 1,000 improved re¬ 
volvers, at $24 each, and filled it, with the as¬ 
sistance of Eli Whitney, who owned a small 
armory at Whitneyville, Conn. 
This order set Colt on his financial feet and 
thereafter his revolver took its place as an 
acknowledged success. Large works were re¬ 
quired for its manufacture. Colt selected 250 
acres of land on the Connecticut River in Hart- 
ford, built massive dykes along the banks of 
that river to prevent it from overflowing his 
land during the spring freshets, built numerous 
cottages for his employees, and also provided 
for them a public hall, church and library. 
The rush to California in ’49 added greatly 
to the business prosperity of the Colt Company. 
Armories for the manufacture of this revolver 
were later established in England and Russia. 
Colt was received with high honors abroad, 
and the Institute of Civil Engineers, London, 
presented him with a gold medal and elected 
him a life member. 
The great war between the States drew heav¬ 
ily on the Colt armory for weapons, and further 
increased their great fame. 
A few years later a long step was taken to¬ 
ward perfection in the transition from the 
powder, ball and percussion cap to metallic am¬ 
munition. This caused great changes in the 
models of firearms, much to their improvement. 
Of these firearms, the Colt revolver was con¬ 
spicuously in the van of progress. In the early 
‘70s of the past century the Colt models as¬ 
sumed a fixed general type as to solid frame, 
and were further conspicuously successful in 
meeting the severe exactions of the army tests. 
The Colt .44s and .45s established themselves 
as special favorites in the Western country and 
in the army. The company, however, made re¬ 
volvers of all other approved calibers, single 
and double action, and also—in the early '70s— 
engaged in the manufacture of the famous 
Gatling gun, a marvel of rapid fire mechanism. 
For a time, the Colt Company also engaged in 
the manufacture of high class shotguns. 
The jointless solid-frame “New Navy’’ and 
“New Army” revolvers, adopted by the United 
States Government respectively in 1889 and 
1892, have been turned out by the hundred thou¬ 
sands. The New Service Double Action .45 for 
military organizations, mounted police, hunters, 
etc., has found great favor in the army, especial¬ 
ly in the Philippines. 
A few years ago the Colt Automatic pistol 
was added to the Colt Company’s other excel¬ 
lent manufactures. It is made in several stand¬ 
ard calibers, and is a wonderful combination 
of simple mechanism and ballistic power. 
Made especially for army and navy use, the 
Colt Automatic gun is a machine gun of amaz¬ 
ing capabilities for destructiveness. It weighs 
only forty pounds, and is adapted to the use of 
any kind of rifle ammunition, and in ordinary 
adjustment grinds out over 400 shots per 
minute, and will swing through a complete 
circle at the will of the operator. 
The Colt armory is an immense plant. The 
east armory, that near the river, is 500 feet long 
by 60 feet wide, and four stories high. The 
west armory and the connecting building are of 
the same dimensions, excepting as to height, 
they being one story less. The one-story build¬ 
ings, four in number, which house the drop 
forging department, the blacksmithing depart¬ 
ment. the polishing department and the foundry, 
are each 214 by 40 feet. To attempt even a 
brief description of the thousands of machines 
in this great manufactory would fill a large 
volume. Indeed, to describe the evolution of 
any one revolver frame, from an oblong of 
special steel, “the blank,” forged into rough 
shape with a few blows of a trip hammer, up 
through the numerous subsequent milling, fin¬ 
ishing, inspection and testing processes, would 
require a large book in itself. The excellence 
of the material, perfection of workmanship, 
beauty of model, and absolute certainty that 
every pistol, owing to the most rigid supervision 
and inspection, is faultless, afford ample reasons 
why the best is always the cheapest. 
Massachusetts Fish and Game. 
Boston, Mass., Aug. 13. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: The season for trout fishing in Massa¬ 
chusetts has closed and the general verdict is 
that it has been disappointing. Apparently our 
commissioners have done all they could with the 
facilities at their command. It is becoming an 
old story as regards our State hatcheries. Pro¬ 
gress has been made at one of them by its 
abandonment, but it required many years of ap¬ 
proximate uselessness to convince the authorities 
that it was not worth while to continue it in 
operation. Its discontinuance is commendable 
as is also the more extended work done at Sut¬ 
ton in rearing trout to the fingerling stage. As 
many of your readers know this is the only 
hatchery we have where the fish can be carried 
through the summer, and its full capacity is not 
far from 150,000 yearly output. 
For two years past our streams have been very 
low through the summer months, and this has 
had an effect upon the fishing this season. 
In supplementing the work of the State officers 
the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective 
Association and allied clubs in the last four 
years have distributed 180,000 fingerlings for fall 
planting. The present situation makes it clear 
that to maintain even fairly good fishing anglers 
must continue the work of restocking, mainly 
with fish of some size, until the State or the 
general Government, or both, come to the rescue. 
For the stocking of Massachusetts waters only 
the association has announced from its office 
that it will furnish fingerlings for fall planting 
at the nominal price of $10.50 per thousand, ex¬ 
penses of transportation to be paid by the con¬ 
signee. It is to be hoped that before many years 
there will be at least one fish hatchery capable 
of rearing 500,000 fingerlings yearly. 
Col. Henry G. Thomas, of Stowe, Vt., has 
resigned the commissionership of the State of 
Vermont after nine years of very efficient service 
in order to accept a much more lucrative posi¬ 
tion. His term as commissioner has witnessed 
a steady advance not only in public sentiment, 
but in actual conditions as regards fish and game. 
He has the satisfaction of knowing that through 
his agency seining and netting in Lake Cham¬ 
plain and other waters of the State have been 
stopped. On his accession to office wardens re¬ 
ceived their appointment from the selectmen of 
the towns; now they are appointed by the com¬ 
missioners, and instead of being paid by moiety 
as formerly, they are paid per diem and ex¬ 
penses. The colonel secured a close season on 
black bass with a limit of twenty-four in one 
day and put a stop to the use of set lines in all 
waters. The stripping of pike perch for the 
hatchery at Swanton no longer involves their 
slaughter. Formerly, after stripping, these fish 
were thrown into barrels and shipped to New 
York or Boston. The colonel secured a channel 
through what is called “Sandbar Bridge,” so that 
pike might spawn in Vermont waters. In one 
line of effort he did not succeed, viz.: stopping 
the pollution of fishing waters. 
Although out of office he is determined to fight 
it out. In 1901 there were 211 deer killed in 
Vermont; in 1909, 5,000 were killed in six days. 
Now, he says, the farmer may get pay for dam¬ 
age done by deer. He says from the hunters’ 
license law, which he secured, a revenue of 
$17,000 a year is derived. He is greatly pleased 
with the law he got that “all moneys received 
from licenses, fines, sales and other sources shall 
be added to the appropriation and be at the dis¬ 
posal of the commission, and if there is any 
left over at the end of the year, it shall be added 
to that of the next year,” and so on, so that no 
money is to go back into the treasury. 
The colonel surrenders his office with the con¬ 
sciousness that he has done his “level best,” and 
has succeeded in giving the sportsmen of his 
State good fishing and hunting. It is a .source 
of great satisfaction to him to feel as he ex¬ 
presses it that “Vermont is O. K.,” and that on 
retiring he does so with the best wishes of all 
connected with the department, and moreover 
he expresses much satisfaction that his predeces¬ 
sor, Hon. J. W. Titcomb, is to be his successor. 
H. H. Kimball. 
