FOREST AND STREAM. - 
‘ 25 


AN OLD AUTHORITY ON GUNS. 
EIR. LES 
OW strange it is to take up for perusal some Ameri- 
can sporting book of even a half century old. Ata 
book stall yesterday, just such aone was found. Its well 
thumbed appearance, a perceptible black smudge here and 
there, as if of damp gunpowder, would lead the reader of 
to-day, think that its old owner might have taken it into 
the fields, and when game was scarce, had the studied book, 
gun in hand. 
Laugh at its antiquated ideas? Nota bit of it. On the 
table lies a host of big books of but yesterday, luxuriant in 
fancy binding, illustrated almost, in every page, telling of a 
thousand and one sporting matters unknown to our fathers; 
yet the modest .volume of almost fifty years ago compares 
favorably with the best of them. Within its pages, one can 
find in a perfectly condensed way, a thorough treatise on 
the diseases of the dog, and how to cure him, and all written 
in the easiest simplest language. To paraphrase a well- 
known quotation, evidently in those days, ‘‘dog diseases 
were not invented, so that prescriptions could be found for 
them.” 
Of course, as to shooting, the sporting manual of 1827 is 
decidedly forty-six years behind the times. It says ‘“‘the art 
of shooting flying has not been practised in this country, 
exe pting by a few individuals for more than fifty years, 
aud in England for not more than double that length of time. 
The greatest improvements in this science and in the fowl- 
ing picce itself have been made within but a few years.” 
About the time of the publication of the book, the percus- 
sion cap was being introduced, it having followed the pellet 
made of fulminating powder. Our sound old authority, 
says ‘“‘the adaptation of inflammable percussion powder, 
has made quite a revolution in fire arms, and bids fair to 
explode the flint and steel entirely.” The disagreeable effects 
of the pieces of copper flying back and striking the shooter 
are complained about. That was a queer idea prevalent 
some fifty years ago, and recorded in this book, that although 
percussion locks could be adapted to fowling-pieces, they 
would be impossible for rifles, because ‘‘the force of the 
cock of the barrel, will depress the piece, and cause the 
ball to strike low.” What difference could exist in this re- 
spect, between the fowling-piece and the rifle, both using 
the sane methods of a falling cock, it is hard to state. But 
stop; is there not some little germ of thought in this? We 
are getting every day nicer and nicer exactly on these very 
same subjects. If one thinks well over it, the fall of the 
cock, which certainly does something to jar the barrel, and 
depress the piece, might be prevented by a parallel method 
of mechanism. Now those dilletanté about these matters, 
will notice numerous new patterns invented every day 
of locks, where the spring motions and striking points 
are made not at right-angles but parallel with the barrel, 
and the makers declare that accuracy will be improved 
thereby. It is wonderful how much conyentionality there 
is in all things, and how even a gun-lock must follow the 
forms of one hundred years ago. 
““The gentleman of Philadelphia county” who writes the 
book modestly suggests the possibility of using condensed 
air to ignite the powder. People certainly in those days 
must have shaken their heads over this. Undoubtedly they 
would be quite as likely to be somewhat staggered, if the 
idea was advanced, that the fulminate in the cartridge could 
be fired by an electric shock, to be generated in the gun. 
But this is not only possible, and may be expected any day, 
some of the most ingenious minds having directed their 
attention towards its accomplishment. The end they aim 
at, is precisely that intimated in this book of fifty years 
ago, to get rid of the jar of the lock. 
But to return to the subject of old sporting books. Per- 
haps their scarcity arises from the fact, that like children’s 
books, of any antiquity, they are so much read, that they 
are sooner or later absolutely thumbed out of existence. 
We do not know who has made in the United States a 
collection of such books, devoted entirely to sporting mat- 
ters. Such an assemblage of volumes would be singularly 
interesting. In them would not only be found, the truest 
chornicle of the advance of inventive power in the United 
States, the changes guns had undergone, but a perfect 
epitome of human nature. i 
ee hoe $ 
Hiew Times At Hauturax.—The presence of Lord Dutf- 
ferin, the Governor General of Canada, at the quaint old 
capital of Nova Scotia, has set the townina whirl. A naval 
officer writes us privately in the following melancholy 
strain: - 
‘For the last week I have lunched and dined out every 
day; and what with balls, concerts, garrison theatricals, 
&c., I have not once been able to ‘‘turn in” before three 
o'clock, and sometimes even later. To-night we give a ball 
on-board-ship, for which we have been making preparations 
forthe last five days. To-morrow night the Sixtieth Rifles 
give a ball, and then, thank goodness, we shall once more 
lapse into our normal state of quietude! At present it is as 
bad as the Shah.” 
The delightful climate of Halifax makes these festivities 
more tolerable than they are found to be at Saratoga. 
———— ee OO 
Tue Hon. Davip Price, of Quebec, the owner of no less 
than thirty lamber mills on the St. Lawrence and the Sague- 
nay rivers, and an ardent sportsmen withal, is one of the 
directors of the newly formed ‘‘ Anticosti Company,” who 
have lately purchased the island of that name in the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence—an accurate description of which (the first 
ever published) we are now printing in this paper. The 

Island until recently has been almost a terra incognita, and: 
a terrible bugbear to navigators, 


THE BLUEFISH. 
enaed yan! 
ERY little practical information has been written of 
the blucfish in works of Angling, and their habits 
are comparatively unknown. We can trace their peregrin- 
ations, it is true—can ascertain on what they feed, and 
how and when to capture them; but. their spawning 
places, and the occasion of their movements, are still a 
mystery even to the savants. In those months when they 
make their presence known along our coasts they are found 
of various sizes, each size constituting a class or family of 
its own, They are one of our most highly prized game 
fish, and excellent for the table, whether baked, broiled or 
boiled. 
Size 1.—The bluefish, or snap mackerel (Zennodor Salta- 
tur) makes its first appearance at the various inlets between 
Cape May and Egg Harbor in the latter part of the month 
of May. These will average about seven pounds in 
weight, poor in flesh and ravenous asa shark. In June 
they are found equally abundant off and in Fire Island In- 
let, and in a few days thereafter are scattered off Montauk 
Point, the east end of Long Island, Shagwauna reef; and 
other reefs adjacent. By or near the 20th of June, depend- 
ing something upon the forwardness of the season, they 
have spread themselves over the reefs of New London and 
to the eastward, on to Block Island, and thence through 
Fisher’s Island Sound. By the 20th of August they are in 
plentiful supply all through, inside and outside of Vineyard 
Sound, Nantucket, &c. They have gained flesh, and be- 
come quite palatable. The size here described is seldom 
found to the westward of thé Connecticut river. On the 
main of Long Island Sound it is quite interesting to see 
them drive the menhaden, or moss bunkers, in shoals, caus- 
ing a “‘sleeck” on the water as they spill their oil when they 
chop them up with their great sharp teeth. 
Size 2.—Early in June a size of about three pounds weight 
make their appearance at the same points, though much 
fatter, and remain in the vicinity of the same grounds for 
perhaps a month. In July they spread out to the eastward, 
up Long Island Sound to Saybrook Bar and Faulkner’s 
Island, and westerly to Stamford, and remain until October, 
though occasionally shifting ground for their food, which, 
in addition to the moss bunkers, consists of a small species 
of ‘“‘shiner,” (anchovy.) On some of the outer reefs they 
remain but one or two days ata time. The writer of this 
has trolled for them over the reefs at and near Faulkner’s 
Island for two successive days with splendid success, at all 
times of tide, and on the following day caught nothing. 
The shoal had left for the main land. 
Size 3.—About the middle of July the small creeks and 
rivers, from Stamford eastward to the Connecticut river, 
abound in a size weighing about a quarter of a pound, 
which, in a month grow to half a pound, and these feed on 
a size still smaller, recently spawned, and scarcely an inch 
and a half in length. The surface of the Housatonic river, 
from the railroad bridge to the mouth of the river, is annu- 
ally covered from bank to bank with countless numbers of 
this small fry, drifting with the tide as it ebbs and flows, 
while at the same time a size larger (size 4) say about a half 
pound in weight, is feeding upon them from beneath. 
About the ist of September the small fry are sufficiently 
large to venture into the Sound, and then they swarm in the 
creeks and harbors, affording great sport to lads who catch 
them with a float line, with shrimp for bait. By the month 
of October both large and small fish are all well fattened. 
The peculiarity of this fish is that, by about the middle 
of October the large size, that weigh from nine to fourteen 
pounds, are generally found from Nantucket to Watch Hill, 
around Block Island and outside of Montauk Point ; while 
from Stamford, eastward to New London, on the outer 
reefs, they are of a uniform size of about two and a half 
pounds weight, and those in the harbors and erecks are a 
mixture of small fish just spawned, and a size that weighs 
from one-eighth to one and three-quarter pounds. Another 
singular feature is, that by about the 20th of October, or 
the first freezing weather, these fish, of all sizes, up to two 
and a half pounds, vacate the northern harbors and sounds ; 
and so sudden has been their departure in many seasons 
that a change of tide has utterly emptied the waters of their 
teeming fish-life, with the exception of an occasional pen- 
sioner who had been bitten or disabled, and dare not run 
the gauntlet for southern climes. More singular still, the 
great mass of fish, except the newly spawned, take the 
coast within one or two miles of shore, part of them stop- 
ping, if the weather permits, at the inlets of Fire Island, 
Ege Harbor, Townsend’s, Canarsie Bay, Cape May, and 
so on along shore, using up all the feed therein, and by the 
month of December they are found in the creeks and rivers 
of North and South Carolina, where they remain through 
the winter, to migrate the next season to northern waters. 
But what becomes of the small, newly spawned fish that 
disappeared the previous fall ? Have’ they been eaten up 
by the larger fish on their journey ? or do they remain at 
the North ? They are not seen in the South, nor do the 
larger fish spawn there. 
It is only about forty-two years since the bluefish first made 
its appearance in our waters. It is one of the finest of mer- 
chantable fish on the coast, and for sport is game to the 
death. On the reefs they are generally trolled for, but will 
take the hook with live bait. In October, near the close of the 
season, large catches are made off Montauk Point, and from 
Watch Hill eastward through the Vineyard Sound, that 
weigh from ten to fourteen pounds, and are fat as seals ; so 
also in Canarsie Bay, in some years, they have been taken 
from twelve to eighteen pounds in weight, Butit is only in 



rarely exceptional cases that these great fish are taken west 
of Plum Gut. 
The bluefish fraternizes with the weakfish, or sque- 
teague, on inshore grounds, and are of large size, say from 
five to twelve pounds. Both of these fine fish are taken 
with the squid or jig in the surf at Montauk, Newport and 
elsewheresand afford the most exciting sport—the angler, 
often standing waist deep in the breakers, throwing his 
squid to incredible distances by practice, and dragging the 
fish by main strength to terra firma when he has struck. 
The bluefish seem to be increasing year by year in size 
and numbers, individuals having been caught at times 
weighing between twenty and thirty pounds, whereas a 
twelve pound fish was regarded as something remarkable 
twenty years ago. Large.shoals were also uncommon until 
within the past dozen years. 
Four generations of fish make their appearance in our 
waters at the same time. The bluefish is a migratory fish, 
passing his winters at the South and returning to the North 
with the advent of warm weather. 
$$$ $< 0 —___— 
THE COACHING REVIVAL. 
pees, oe 
ROM the other side of the water comes a pleasant rum- 
ble. An effort is being made, and with considerable 
success, to revive the old coaching days,~with their pranc- 
ing steeds and sumptuous drags, and to-day such equipages 
are bowling over the pleasant hedge-skirted English roads. 
Will there ever be a second Phebus <Apello like Sir 
John Lade, who in a hippic way, might have been sup- 
posed capable of threading a needle with his tandem? 
Will there ever be a new contestant, who could accomplish 
Lade’s feat of driving twenty-two times a coach-and-four 
at full speed through a gate only two inches wider than 
his carriage wheels? Perhaps not on our sober and estab- 
lished highways, graded and macadamized as they are. and 
policed with regulations against fast driving and reckless 
feats of skill. But we opine that few persons will be 
foundin any age or clime to outshine the achievements of 
the genuine Overland stage-driver who drives his four or 
six in hand along the verge of ticklish precipices and 
down the canon steeps where to miss a footing is to leap to 
certain death. Possibly some dilapidated spark may find 
in coaching professionally an honest employment; and who 
can tell but that some sporting habitue with fallen fortunes, 
will not risk his last three or four thousand dollars in the 
purchase of some neat team and drag, and donning livery 
himself, drive out aristocratic fares through the Parks 
or along the ‘‘ Bloomingdale Road.” 
Railroads to-day mean greatest speed—the annihilation 
of space and time. But the tourist in search of simple 
recreation and pure aesthetics, much more enjoys the rum- 
ble of the slower coach, with itseasy stages and its many 
comforts of wayside inns, cooling fountains, and diverting 
landscapes. There is a journey from Woodstock, New 
Brunswick, along the St. John river, past the Indian vil- 
lage of Tobique, past the Grand Falls of the St. John, past 
its many tributaries and along the great lake Temiscouta, to 
Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence river, which affords one 
of the most enchanting coaching routes in the country. 
Another equally agreeable and novel is the 150-mile jour- 
ney from Pictou, Nova Scotia, across the straight of Canso, 
and along the Bras d’Or Laké to Sidney, Cape Breton. 
We must go tothe Provinces for these opportunities 
now. 

rd 
A. JoKE ONLY 265 YEARS OLD.—Of course, we all have 
heard it. Itis the story of the master who was an egre- 
gious story-teller, and of his faithful negro-servant, who 
always considered it a conscientious duty to swear to his 
master’s lies. The master shoots a deer through the top 
of the ear and the hind foot, (so he says) and Cuffy vouches 
for it, dovetailing the lie, by alleging that his master shot 
the animal when it was in the act of sctratching itself. Here 
it is, ina common place book of one Master George Fox, 
written down A. D. 1608. We transcribe it in the old text: 
‘“A gentleman, very prodigal of his speeche, which made 
his mouth often to run over, recounted that having one daye 
strolled out into the forest with his bowe, he at one shoot 
cutte awaye a deare’s ear and his foote together, and killed 
afoxe. The company saying it was impossible, his man, 
which stood bye, accustomed to smooth his master’s lies, 
sayd that the deare cratching his eare with his hinder foote, 
lost bothe, and the arrowe glancing, killed the foxe; yet with 
this hint in his master’s ear, that he should next time lye 
within compasse,” for quoth he, ‘‘ I had never so much ado 
as to bring the eare and foot together.” 
Truly there is nothing new under the sun, 
, > 0 
The Hartford Cowrant has been estimating the chances 
one runs of being struck by lightning, and figures it up, that 
in 1870, 202 persons died from its effects. Taking the in- 
crease of population from 1860 to 1870, to have been about 
7,000,000, the increase was only eleven. The absolute ratio 
seems to be forty-two deaths by lightning for every 100,000 
cases of mortality. The strange rule found by French ob- 
servers seems still to hold good that males are more prone 
to be struck by lightning than females, 148 men having been 
killed, and only fifty-four females. During the same ten 
years of observation,‘there were 1,345 deaths by suicide. In 
other words an individual is six times as likely to kill him 
self, as lightning is to kill him. 
2h ee ee 
—Four lions broke loose lately from a menagerie some- 
where in Belgium, and a regiment of infantry had to be 
called out to quell them, 


