, 
 
SHOOTING, 
 
 BOATING AND FISHING, 
 
 FOR 
 
 YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
 
 BY 
 
 T. ROBINSON WARREN. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO 
 
 1871. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO. 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Press of ROGERS & SHERWOOD, 
 94 & 96 Nassau St., N. Y. 
 
5K33 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 THIS BOOK I DEDICATE TO MY THREE BOYS, 
 JOHN, SCHUYLER, AND KEARNY, 
 
 WITH THE HOPE IT WELL LEAD THEM TO THE 
 CULTIVATION OF MANLY SPORTS. 
 
 THEIR FATHER. 
 
 257 
 
TO MY BOYS. 
 
 BOYS, so you want to be sportsmen, do you? 
 Well, its a laudable ambition. Now do you know 
 that there are two words in the English lan- 
 guage which have no synonym in any other, both 
 pleasant to the ear, not only of boyhood, but 
 manhood, too ; the one is the dear old word home, 
 and the other that vigorous monosyllable sport. 
 While the French have their jeu, the Spaniards 
 their juego, and the Germans their spiel, all sig- 
 nifying a game or play, neither word possesses 
 the comprehensiveness of the Saxon word which 
 applies equally to the frolics of the play-ground 
 and the sterner excitement of the chase. In 
 proof of this, let me remark that the Parisians, 
 some time since, determining upon the establish- 
 ment of a newspaper in the interests of the 
 sporting community, cast about them for a suit- 
 able title; it must be short, sharp, expressive. 
 Was there no fit word or combination of words 
 in that language so fertile, so luxuriant in idiom? 
 It seems not, for the proprietors fell back in de- 
 spair upon the English, and dubbed their new 
 journal " Le Sport." 
 
VI. 
 
 This word so noble, yet so simple, has been 
 prostituted to the basest uses, for as the hypocrite 
 adopts religion as a cloak for his misdeeds, so the 
 gambler, the prize-fighter and the jockey strive 
 to give themselves an air of respectability by the 
 assumption of the title of "sporting men," but 
 the pinchbeck is too vulgar not to be easy dis- 
 tinguishable from the genuine. Bear in mind, 
 Boys, that there is nothing in the character of 
 the real sportsman that is inconsistent with that 
 of the Christian gentleman ; and, also, that sports- 
 manship does not consist merely in shouldering 
 a gun, following a dog across a stubble field, or 
 casting a fly into a shady pool. Do not imagine 
 that one is born a sportsman and has only to 
 buy the implements of the trade to become an 
 expert, for experience will teach you that few 
 callings require so arduous an apprenticeship, 
 combining the severe physical training of the 
 athlete with the intellectual assiduity of the stu- 
 dent, and that he who attains such perfection 
 earns a proud position in the ranks of manhood. 
 Sportsmanship brooks no tampering with na- 
 ture's laws, no association with vice. A clear eye 
 and a steady hand can not coexist with the use 
 of artificial stimulants, nor is self-reliance or 
 self-control the attribute of the sybarite, the gour- 
 
Vll. 
 
 mand, or the sensualist. The glance along the 
 gun-barrel must be undimmed and unwavering ; 
 the grasp upon the tiller must be firm and un- 
 faltering, and the muscle that wields the paddle 
 or bends the oar must be of whip-cord and of 
 steel. 
 
 As sportsmanship demands the highest physi- 
 cal development, so does it call for a cultivated 
 intellect and a practical acquaintanceship with 
 nature's laws, success in the chase requiring fa- 
 miliarity with the genus and variety of the game 
 which is hunted, with its habits and its instincts, 
 with its food and the circumstances of climate 
 and of soil producing it. 
 
 Mechanical skill, too, to a certain extent, is es- 
 sential to the sportsman, giving him a thorough 
 knowledge of, and ability to repair, the imple- 
 ments of the chase ; in fact he should be an am- 
 ateur gunsmith, and sufficiently a sailor to fish a 
 spar, splice a rope, or mend a sail. 
 
 Now, Boys, don't turn away in disgust, saying 
 you don't aspire to perfection, but only want to 
 shoot moderately well, to be able to work a dog, 
 or cast a fly like a gentleman; and that as to 
 sailing your own yacht, your boat-keeper is paid 
 for doing that. Depend upon it, Boys, that what- 
 ever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 
 
VU1. 
 
 and that the pleasure that excellence affords 
 more than compensates for the labor of its at- 
 tainment. A true sportsman is independent of 
 the gunner, who is the necessary and expensive 
 attendant of the amateur, to whose whim and 
 caprice he is always subject, or of the sailing 
 master, who is usually his tyrant ; the gunner 
 generally reserving the best shooting for himself, 
 while the sailing master is invariably ready with 
 some quibble of impending gale or an unfavor- 
 able tide as an excuse for not getting under way 
 when it suits his convenience to remain ashore. 
 Bear in mind that I do not pretend to the title 
 of Sportsman myself, or even to that of " good 
 shot;" but, acknowledging to an enthusiastic love 
 of sport, (which in most of its phases I have en- 
 joyed in the four quarters of the globe) I think 
 myself justified in offering you the following sug- 
 gestions, the result, generally speaking, of my 
 own personal experience, hoping it may excite a 
 sufficient interest to induce you to study such 
 authorities as Audubon, Hawker, Herbert, Scott, 
 Wilson, Youatt, Eosevelt and others, who, as 
 naturalists and sportsmen, stand preeminent. 
 
 YOUK FATHER. 
 
 New Brunswick, N. J., July 4, 1871. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. GUNPOWDER, 13 
 
 II. THE GUN, .... ... 18 
 
 III. BAY SNIPE SHOOTING, 41 
 
 IV. ENGLISH SNIPE, G'6 
 
 V. DUCKING, 69 
 
 VI. QUAIL, 85 
 
 VII. WOODCOCK, 95 
 
 VIII. THE DOG, 100 
 
 IX. BOAT SAILING Ill 
 
 X. FISHING, .139 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 BILL CHAD WICK'S SNIPE FLATS, . . . Frontispiece 
 
 THE LOCK, 21 
 
 CHADWICK'S GUN HOUSE, 69 
 
 A SHORT SPLICE, 121 
 
 EYE SPLICE, 122 
 
 BOWLINE KNOT, 122 
 
 RUNNING BOW-LINE KNOT, '. 123 
 
 HITCHING A ROPE, 123 
 
 OVER-HAND KNOT, 124 
 
 REEF KNOT. , 124 
 
GUNPOWDER, 
 
 As GUNPOWDER plays a most important role in 
 sporting matters, suppose that we pause for a 
 moment and look into its nature and mode of 
 manufacture. On reflection, you will agree with 
 me in thinking it not a little strange that although 
 Gunpowder was possibly known in very remote 
 ages to the Chinese, and was certainly used in 
 Europe as early as the 13th century, there should 
 have been so little improvement made in its qual- 
 ity since the first invention until a very recent 
 period ; and this seems especially strange when we 
 take into consideration that all explosive arms, so 
 to speak, used for offense and defense, which for 
 years have exercised the inventive genius of man- 
 kind, have naturally been dependent on its excel- 
 lence for success. It is unnecessary to state that 
 Gunpowder is the result of a combination of sul- 
 phur, saltpeter and charcoal, and I will hence en- 
 deavor to give a general outline of its manufacture 
 
14: GUNPOWDEE. 
 
 in a very few words : Saltpeter, which constitutes 
 75 per cent, of Gunpowder, is composed of six 
 equal parts of oxygen, one of nitrogen, and one of 
 potasium. This salt appears in minute crystals 
 on the damp ground in India (and indeed in 
 other countries in limited quantities), is collected 
 and purified by boiling, and then shipped to 
 Europe and to this country, and there refined by 
 various elaborate processes until fitted for use. 
 
 The next ingredient is sulphur, which is ob- 
 tained from volcanic districts, and from iron and 
 copper pyrites. It is purified by melting and 
 then ground into powder and filtered through 
 very fine seives. It ignites at a very low temper- 
 ature, and by its non-absorbent qualities it ren- 
 ders powder more durable. The quantity used 
 is from 9 @ 12 1 per cent. Charcoal is the last in- 
 gredient, and the woods used in its preparation 
 are selected with very great care. After carbon- 
 ization it is thoroughly ground and sifted and is 
 then ready for use. 
 
 The three ingredients are now weighed out in 
 the following proportions, viz. : 
 
 Saltpeter, 75 parts. 
 
 Sulphur, 10 parts. 
 
 Charcoal, .... - 15 parts. 
 
 and, after being mixed, about 50 ft weight is put 
 into a close box, in which a drum armed with 
 
GUNPOWDEE. 15 
 
 long teeth rapidly revolves, and the mixture be- 
 ing perfect it is run into a bag and is termed, 
 technically, the Green Charge. It is then taken 
 into the incorporating mill and is put into a huge 
 iron dish, around which revolve runners weigh- 
 ing several tons ; this immense pressure and ac- 
 tion, aided by occasional applications of water, 
 form the mixture into a compact mass of a gray- 
 ish hue. The operation lasts many hours, at the 
 expiration of which the mass becomes in reality 
 Gunpowder, but is called Mill-cake, and is placed 
 in receptacles in readiness for the next process, 
 which consists in taking it to the press-house and 
 putting it under hydraulic pressure, where the 
 cake, by very complicated machinery and a pres- 
 sure of several hundred tons, is compressed with- 
 in three-fifths of its original bulk. It is then by 
 another machine again broken into lumps about 
 as large as a hickory nut. It now goes to the 
 coming-house or granulating mill, where it is 
 converted into grains by means of immensely 
 heavy toothed rollers rapidly revolving ; but it has 
 still to be glazed in order to overcome its porous- 
 ness, and is placed in large cylinders, which ro- 
 tate with great rapidity, and consequently the 
 grains are driven against each other with exces- 
 sive force, this action generating a certain heat, 
 
16 GUNPOWDEK. 
 
 and this heat affects the color which, from a gray- 
 ish tint, is converted into a glossy black, the 
 glaze being caused by attrition, and thus the 
 pores are closed, the surface hardened and the 
 powder so cleaned " as not to soil the whitest 
 glove." The foregoing is, of course, but the 
 faintest and most imperfect description of the 
 mode of manufacture, but it may excite your in- 
 terest (and I hope it will) sufficiently to induce 
 you to look into the matter thoroughly ; only let 
 me advise you to get your information from 
 looks, and not to go within five miles of a powder 
 mill if you can possibly avoid it, for they have a 
 way of blowing up at the most inconvenient and 
 unexpected times, and often without the slightest 
 possible pretext or excuse. Gunpowder is to be 
 found in every variety, from abominably bad to 
 the very finest quality, but a sportsman can read- 
 ily distinguish the bad from the good. In the 
 first place the color and the appearance of the 
 powder will indicate the quality to a certain ex- 
 tent, then again by rubbing it briskly in the palm 
 of the hand, if it leaves a dirty stain of course its 
 quality is inferior; and, again, flashing it in a 
 glass plate will show whether or not the combi- 
 nation is perfect, or if it is likely to foul a gun 
 And its strength can be easily determined by ac- 
 
GUNPOWDER. 17 
 
 tual trial with a gun ; for instance, by making a 
 target of twenty or thirty sheets of blotting paper 
 and firing the same charge of shot and the same 
 charge of different brands of powder you will be 
 able to judge of the penetration to a nicety. Sport- 
 ing powders are generally made from No. 1 to 
 No. 6, the grain increasing in size with the num- 
 ler. This, I believe, is always the mode prac- 
 ticed by Englishmen ; but, if I mistake not, some 
 of our American manufacturers reverse the 
 method. I myself invariably use English pow- 
 der made by Curtis & Harvey, believing, from 
 long observation, that it is more uniform in its 
 great strength and excessive cleanliness than any 
 American powder. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Hazard and Du- 
 pont Mills produce a powder possessing both of 
 these qualities in the highest degree, but they do 
 not always do so, and hence I know many sports- 
 men who uniformly pay $1.75 per Sb. for Curtis 
 & Harvey, when they could buy either Hazard's 
 or Dupont's for 80 @ 90c. the one they know 
 is always up to the mark, the other may or may 
 not be. 
 
 Of one thing I feel assured, however, and that 
 is that there can be no good reason why English 
 powder should be superior to the American, and 
 
18 THE GUN. 
 
 as the inferiority of the latter is not the general 
 rule, it must result from carelessness. 
 
 THE GUN. 
 
 MRS. Partington, a very eccentric and much 
 misrepresented old lady, has been wont to say 
 that " a gun was dangerous without lock, stock, 
 or, barrel," and, barring a little extravagance in 
 diction, she was about half right, for guns of un- 
 heard of age, knocked and bruised out of all 
 semblance to fire arms, and that have lain for 
 years in damp wet cellars, have been known to 
 explode contrary to every known law regulating 
 combustion. In fact, Boys ! always look upon 
 your gun as your best friend and your worst 
 enemy, ready to serve you if you watch it closely, 
 but let your vigilance once cease and an instant's 
 carelessness may cost you your life or a limb. 
 You may think it strange Boys, but I here ven- 
 ture to assert that out of ten men who shoot? 
 there shall be at least three who can not name all 
 the parts of a gun that are exposed to view, let 
 alone those that are not ; it is indeed astonishing 
 that so many men who shoot a good deal, and 
 
THE GUN. 19 
 
 are fair shots, should manifest so little interest in 
 the construction of their guns, relying entirely 
 upon their gunsmith to clean and keep them in 
 condition and repair ; but let me strongly advise 
 you to avoid any such indifference, and to make 
 yourselves thoroughly acquainted "with every part 
 of your piece, and to this end I have made a 
 drawing of the lock and of its parts separately 
 and accompany it with instructions for taking it 
 to pieces and putting it together. 
 
PAETS OF LOCK. ( As in Plate.) 
 
 Lock Plate, No. 1. Outside of lock. 
 Tumbler, No. 2. Moveable center piece. 
 Hammer ', No. 3. Piece which strikes the caps. 
 
 Bridle, No. 4. Piece which caps the tumbler 
 and holds lock together. 
 
 Scear, No. 5. Piece which catches tumbler on 
 the hammer being moved to half cock. 
 
 Scear Spring, No. 6. Small spring holding scear 
 in the notches of the tumbler at full or half 
 cock. 
 
 Spring Cramp. An instrument for taking off 
 and repairing mainspring of gun lock. 
 
 Tumbler Screw. Outside screw securing ham- 
 mer to tumbler. 
 
THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A GUN. 
 
 Bolt. Small piece of steel securing the barrels 
 
 to the stock. 
 Breech. The piece at the end of the barrels 
 
 which contains the chamber. 
 Butt. The end of the stock placed against the 
 
 shoulder. 
 False Breech. The iron on the gun stock into 
 
 which the breech fits. 
 Chamber. Place in the breech where the powder 
 
 explodes. 
 Bib. Raised piece of metal on upper side of 
 
 and between barrels. 
 
 Guard. The metal scroll which guards the trig- 
 gers. 
 
 Nipple. The tubes for caps. 
 Worm. Screw at end of ramrod. 
 
THE GUN. 23 
 
 Having given you the technical names of the 
 various parts of a gun, I will now proceed to tell 
 you in detail how 
 
 " TO TAKE THE LOCK f O pieces. 
 
 First. Cramp and remove mainspring, No. 8, by 
 raising the hammer, No. 3, to full cock, ap- 
 plying spring cramp and screwing it up until 
 the hammer is powerless. 
 
 Secondly. Press the scear, No. 5, and letting 
 down the hammer, the mainspring, No. 8, 
 may be taken off. 
 
 Thirdly. Ease up the screw of the scear spring 
 and throw it out of its mortice, after which 
 remove screw and take out scear spring. 
 
 Fourthly. Eemove screw which fastens the Scear 
 through the bridle No. 4, then remove screw 
 holding the bridle. 
 
 Fifthly. Eemove screw holding the hammer. 
 
 Sixthly. Then drive out the tumbler, No. 2. 
 
 TO ASSEMBLE OB PUT LOCK TOGETHER AGAIN. 
 
 First. Put the tumbler, No. 2, into the plate,No. 1. 
 
 Second. Then put on the bridle, No. 4, and 
 
 fasten it. 
 
 Third. Put in scear No. 5, with screw. 
 Fourth. Then place scear spring into its place, 
 
 and these being adjusted, 
 
24 THE GUN. 
 
 Fifth. Put hammer, No. 3, in its place and screw 
 
 down. 
 
 Sixth. The mainspring, No. 8, may then be re- 
 placed. Then hook it in the swivel and slip 
 pivot in position, and the Lock is adjusted. 
 Assuming that you have familiarized your- 
 selves somewhat with the foregoing explanation, 
 let me advise you to look up some old fowling- 
 piece, and after providing yourselves with a vial 
 of kerosene oil (which will loosen any screw, 
 however obstinately rusted in,) and screw-driver, 
 to remove the lock, and, following the instruc- 
 tions, take it apart piece by piece ; this will give 
 you a practical insight into its construction, and 
 after repeating the operation a few times you 
 will never thereafter experience any difficulty. 
 Having mastered this, the next thing to take 
 into consideration is the proper manner of 
 
 LOADING. 
 
 And, before making any suggestions in this re- 
 gard, let me here say to you that more accidents 
 happen, while performing this operation than at 
 any other time or from any other cause ; hence I 
 would endeavor to impress upon you the neces- 
 sity of systematically observing a few simple 
 rules. 
 
 First, and above all things and always, keep 
 
THE GUtf. 25 
 
 the muzzle turned away from your person ; of 
 course, while loading, your piece will be grasped 
 in the left hand, and ought to make an angle of 
 45 degrees with the ground on which it rests. 
 
 Secondly ; under whatever circumstances you 
 may be placed, never allow yourself to be unduly 
 hurried or flurried while loading, or the most un- 
 fortunate results may follow; no matter if a 
 hundred ducks or geese be coming straight at 
 you; no matter if both your dogs be standing 
 stiff as pokers on separate bevies ; no matter if a 
 grizzly bear be making for you, for so sure as 
 you do, you will make some fatal blunder and 
 render your gun useless ; you will either shove 
 in a wad before the powder, pour in the shot 
 first, or mayhap put both loads into one barrel, 
 under either of which contingencies the ducks 
 and geese would pass unharmed, the covies dis- 
 appear, the grizzly dine off of you, or the gun 
 burst and blow your brains out. 
 
 Keep cool then by all means and if you have 
 not used your gun lately, explode a cap on the 
 nipples to see that they are clear, then put a 
 charge of powder into either barrel, ramming 
 down the wads briskly upon the powder, then 
 put a charge of shot into your right hand barrel, 
 ramming down the wad upon it and LEAVING THE 
 
26 THE GUN. 
 
 BOD IN THE BABBEL, and after putting a charge 
 into the second barrel, ram it down. The object 
 of leaving the rod in the one barrel while you 
 are charging the other being to render it impos- 
 sible to put in a DOUBLE charge, which beginners 
 are apt to do, and which is sometimes attended 
 with dangerous and always with disagreeable 
 consequences. 
 
 After both barrels are loaded, replace the rod 
 and cap the tubes, allowing the hammers to press 
 lightly upon the eaps to see if they are well down 
 on the nipples, and then draw them back at half 
 cock, ALWAYS LEAVING them in that position, ex- 
 cept at the instant before drawing up to your 
 shoulder to fire, when, of course, they should be 
 placed at full cock. 
 
 Now, both barrels being loaded, let us suppose 
 that a bird gets up and is fired at, of course the 
 exploded barrel must be reloaded; this is the 
 time when the greatest care should be exercised, 
 for now one hammer is at full cock and one on 
 the nipple. In the excitement of the moment 
 never lose sight of this fact, but always put the 
 hammer of the unexploded barrel at half cock, 
 otherwise, even with the greatest precaution, the 
 mere jar of loading might explode the gun. 
 
 Having made the foregoing simple suggestions 
 
THE GUN. 27 
 
 about loading your piece, let me impress upon 
 you the necessity of alivays 
 
 "KEEPING YOUR GUN IN GOOD CONDITION." 
 
 This you will accomplish only by always cleaning 
 it thoroughly after use. Be you ever so wearied 
 after a day's sport, never set your gun on one 
 side without first swabbing it out and wiping it 
 on the outside with a woolen rag until all mois- 
 ture is removed. Mind you, I do not advise you 
 to take off the locks unless you are going to put 
 it away for some time, or unless you have been out 
 in the rain or otherwise got it wet, or where the 
 fine sand may have been driving in your vicinity, 
 in which last event it is always desirable to re- 
 move the locks, and even to take them to pieces, as 
 it is really wonderful how the fine grains of sand 
 will work their way into the closest fitting locks, 
 and of course nothing will do them so much injury 
 if permitted to remain. The process of cleaning a 
 gun is so very simple as to make neglect in doing 
 it inexcusable. Of course every gunner has his 
 cleaning rod and fixtures, his woolen rags and 
 bottle of lubricating oil. First, then, remove the 
 barrels from the stock, then with the wrench take 
 off the nipples, then placing the breech of the 
 
28 THE GtTN. 
 
 gun in a basin of water (hot is best) pour the 
 water through a funnel into the barrels, then 
 swab out, working the swab up and down until 
 the water is entirely ejected through the nipples ; 
 repeat this until the water runs through perfectly 
 clean and clear, then attach a piece of dry woolen 
 cloth to the screw at the end of the cleaning rod 
 and swab with it until the barrels are perfectly 
 dry. The nipples should then be cleaned and 
 thoroughly dried (the screws moistened with oil) 
 and screwed tightly into their places. The bar- 
 rels should then be oiled and wiped perfectly dry 
 and put in their place, a wad being inserted in 
 each barrel about of an inch below the muz- 
 zle ; and, previously to letting the hammers down 
 on the nipples, a piece of buck skin should be 
 placed over them, thus excludiug the air entirely 
 from the barrel. The gun is now supposed to be 
 clean, but should any specks of rust be observed 
 a drop or two of kerosene oil will remove them 
 at once. When a gun is laid on one side for the 
 day it should be placed in its woolen cover, but 
 if lain away for a longer time it should be put in 
 its leather case, as it will then be out of harm's 
 way. ***"'* 
 Now, then, about 
 
THE GUN. 29 
 
 "THE CHOICE OF A GUN," 
 
 and the question immediately suggests itself, 
 shall it be Muzzle or Breech-loading? This is 
 dangerous ground to tread upon, for if you were 
 to ask the advice of twenty different sportsmen, 
 probably ten would tell you to buy a Breech- 
 loader and ten would advise your sticking to the 
 Muzzle-loader. Both systems have their ad- 
 herents, but notwithstanding the diversity of opin- 
 ion and a certain prejudice against the Breech- 
 loader, I say, " Boys, buy yourselves Breech-loaders. 
 Firstly and principally because they are less dan- 
 gerous than the Muzzle-loading gun; and, sec- 
 ondly, because they give the beginner so many 
 more chances of making a good Bag, and also for 
 practice ; for the trouble of loading a Muzzle- 
 loader being considerable he will hesitate about 
 shooting off his load, whereas, with a Breech- 
 loader, knowing it to be the work of a second 
 only, he fires away whenever there is the slight- 
 est show. In upland shooting, where speed in 
 loading is of less consequence, the diminution in 
 risk, both in the act of loading as well as in 
 climbing fences, etc. (for with the Breech-loader, 
 under such circumstances, the load is withdrawn), 
 is a great desideratum. 
 
 The opponents of the Breech-loader assert that 
 
30 THE GUM. 
 
 there is danger of the charge blowing out at the 
 Breech bosh ! Of course the charge will ex- 
 plode^ in the direction of the least resistance 
 the breech is the stoutest part of the gun, 
 whereas nothing intervenes between the powder 
 in the cartridge and the muzzle of the gun but a 
 charge of shot and two wads, hence in the nature 
 of things the explosive forces will find vent in 
 that direction. 
 
 They assert also that the loading of the shells 
 is a dangerous and disagreeable operation. Bosh 
 again ! there is no accident so far as I know on 
 record, and nothing so relieves the tedium of a 
 wet day when shooting is impracticable, or the 
 ennui consequent upon a few spare hours at a 
 country tavern, as the interest attendant upon 
 the operation. The assertion that carrying 
 loaded cartridges in a belt is hazardous, is 
 equally preposterous, for the belt may fall a hun- 
 dred times without danger to the owner, and ten 
 to one that out of a dozen loaded cartridges that 
 may be dropped from a two story window, not 
 one will explode. If a person be fastidious or 
 lazy, he may buy his cartridges already loaded 
 at a price altogether insignificant. 
 
 It is further asserted that a Breech-loader will 
 not shoot so sharp as a Muzzle-loader, the quality 
 
THE GUN. 31 
 
 of the two guns being the same ; granted, but 
 for upland shooting, for bay or English snipe, 
 the one is absolutely as effective as the other ; 
 for ducks, geese, and swan, or for deer, I must 
 confess I would give the preference to the 
 Muzzle-loader, although the Breech-loader at 
 the ordinary range will kill as often. In fact, the 
 facility with which the Breech-loader can be 
 charged, the frequency with which it can be dis- 
 charged, the ease with which it can be cleaned, 
 and the facility with which one charge can be 
 substituted for another, to suit the game that 
 may be approaching, are arguments which must 
 weigh heavily with a gunner : for instance, you 
 are shooting ducks, broadbill principally, and 
 are loaded up with No. 4 shot, suddenly, how- 
 ever, you spy a bunch of geese heading in over 
 the beach and coming directly for your stand a 
 single motion of your body would be fatal to 
 your shot, so, of course, if you have a Muzzle- 
 loader, you can only take the chance of wing- 
 ing one with the No. 4 shot, but if you have a 
 Breech-loader, without a perceptible motion, so 
 far as the game is concerned, you lay your hand 
 upon a couple of cartridges marked B B, and 
 substituting them for the " No. 4's," you are ready 
 to let drive before the birds have reached you. 
 
32 THE GUN, 
 
 Again, a gun is never so dangerous as when 
 climbing fences, or when getting in and out of 
 boats ; this danger is entirely to be avoided, if you 
 have a Breech-loader, for the process of load- 
 ing and unloading being instantaneous, none but 
 an idiot would omit withdrawing the charge 
 under such circumstances. 
 
 The assertion that a Breech-loader can not be 
 made to shoot so sharp as a Muzzle-loader is, I 
 think, correct, for this reason, as it seems to me, 
 i. e., in charging the Muzzle-loader, a chemically 
 prepared wad is forced down upon the powder, 
 hermetically sealing it in the barrel, thus when 
 the spark from the cap reaches the powder and 
 ignites it, its entire explosive force is directed 
 against the shot, there being no room for its 
 escape ; but with the Breech-loader, on the con- 
 trary, the cartridge must fit with sufficient loose- 
 ness in the barrel to be inserted easily; the result 
 is, that simultaneously with the explosion, a cer- 
 tain portion of gas escapes along with instead of 
 acting directly upon the charge of shot. Now 
 then, the choice of the gun rests with yourselves, 
 but whether it be muzzle or breech-loading, 
 choose one with as little ornamentation or gim- 
 crackery about it as possible. All these ex- 
 (juisite engravings of impossible looking wood- 
 
THE GUN. 33 
 
 cocks, dyspeptic looking setters and cockney 
 sportsmen traced upon the locks and barrels are 
 either emblematic of by-gone ages, or are a 
 temptation and a snare for young sportsmen and 
 a receptacle for rust and dirt, for the plainer the 
 gun the easier to keep clean ; an oiled walnut 
 stock being far preferable to one of polished 
 mahogany. 
 
 Beyond the very manifest necessity of a long 
 stocked gun for a long armed man, and vice- 
 versa, there is no rule to be laid down as to the 
 choice of a gun, so far as its peculiar form goes, 
 the piece that seems to balance in your hands, 
 as you draw it quickly up on an object, is the 
 gun that will suit you the best, but you should 
 be thoroughly satisfied in this regard before you 
 buy ; a few hours in the field, a shot at swallows, 
 or half a dozen pigeons from a trap, will settle 
 the matter conclusively indeed no respectable 
 gunseller will object to such trial. Guns are 
 stocked in different ways, some straight, some 
 more or less crooked. This, however, is a mere 
 matter of fancy ; a straight breech seems to me, 
 however, to be the more natural form. 
 
 The size of your gun, of course, depends upon 
 the game to be pursued, but it is a safe rule to 
 
 lay down that a No. 12 guage is suitable for all 
 2* 
 
34 THE GUN. 
 
 upland bird shooting and for bay snipe, but for 
 ducks and geese or swan, a No. 8 guage is about 
 the thing these are good standard sizes for the 
 purposes named. There are sportsmen who use 
 but one gun, a No. 10 guage, heavy in the breech, 
 which, if a superior sharp-shooting gun, will 
 answer the purpose to a certain extent, but it 
 carries with it the objection, that in upland 
 shooting its weight becomes distressing on a 
 long day's tramp, and when subjected to the 
 heavy charges necessarily used in wild-fowl 
 shooting, the recoil must not only jar one pain- 
 fully, but also affect the accuracy of the aim. 
 As regards length of barrel, it is generally con- 
 ceded that it should be anywhere between twenty- 
 eight and thirty-two inches, the old idea of great 
 length giving increased range being thoroughly 
 exploded. A light No. 12 gun will weigh say 
 7^ Ibs, having a 28 inch barrel, whereas a duck 
 gun, No: 8 guage, weighing 14 Ibs., with a barrel 
 of same length, would be entirely out of propor- 
 tion, as two-thirds of the weight would be in the 
 breech and she would not balance ; but give her 
 four inches more barrel and the balance would 
 be perfect. 
 
 The great desideratum with gunmakers is, of 
 course, to increase the range and to decrease the 
 
THE GUN. 35 
 
 recoil, but the former is only effected by increase 
 of charge of powder, which, of course, augments 
 the recoil ; to counteract this, gunsmiths are now 
 making their guns much heavier in the breech 
 than formerly. I would strongly advise you to 
 bear this in mind in purchasing, and not to let a 
 pound or two extra weight be an objection, pro- 
 vided it be expended in the proper direction. 
 
 Thus you will see that there is no one thing in 
 which a young sportsman should evince more 
 circumspection and deliberation than in the 
 choice of his gun, and, as before remarked, he 
 should never decide upon one before thoroughly 
 testing its shooting qualities and its peculiar 
 adaptability to his eye and shoulder. Perhaps 
 there is no one branch of mechanical art in which 
 swindling is so openly and shamelessly carried 
 on as in the manufacture and sale of fowling 
 pieces; Belgian, German, and French makers, 
 emulous of the fame of Westly-Eichards, Man- 
 ton, and other celebrities, have flooded the con- 
 tinent and this country with counterfeit guns, 
 bearing their trade mark, and so dexterous is 
 the imitation, and the guns seemingly so beauti- 
 fully constructed, that only the eye of an expert 
 can detect it. Unfortunately too, gunsellers in 
 this country lend themselves to this deceit, and 
 
36 THE GUN. 
 
 palm off these guns as genuine. Almost all the 
 guns used in this country are manufactured 
 abroad ; still we have several good makers here, 
 and it is doubtful whether a first-rate London 
 maker can turn out a better gun than can Patrick 
 Mullen or his brother John, of New York, or 
 Evans, of Philadelphia. The favorite English 
 makers with us, are Westly-Richards, Purdey, 
 Manton, Wm. Greener, Moore & Harris, Lancas- 
 ter, Scott, Pope, beside many others who are not 
 so well known. Guns turned out by these men, 
 of course vary greatly in price, ranging all the 
 way from $100 @ $500, but it is safe to say that 
 a gun turned out by Westly-Eichards, Manton, 
 or Purdey, for $150, is quite as good for general 
 use as one costing $500, which is a mere fancy 
 piice. 
 
 One thing you should bear in mind that a 
 cheap gun is never cheap. Guns may be bought 
 for $20, and in the hands of a professional may 
 shoot side by side with your Purdey and beat it, 
 but if your Purdey were in the hands of the pro- 
 fessional, and YOU were shooting the cheap gun, 
 the "Purdey" would win. Cheap guns are 
 liable, at any moment, to burst and blow your 
 brains out, and the locks never can be depended 
 upon and are just as likely to go off at half as at 
 
THE GUN. 37 
 
 full cock. You can form some idea of what a 
 good gun costs to the maker, when I tell you 
 that a pair of Brazier locks alone cost over $40.* 
 
 English barrels are all tested by government 
 and stamped before they are permitted to be sold, 
 so that bursting under ordinary circumstances is 
 not likely with them ; but unfortunately German, 
 Belgian and French makers counterfeit the Eng- 
 lish government proof stamp on their guns. 
 
 If you are in New York and want a gun go to 
 Cooper, Hams & Hodgkins, in Broadway, near 
 Cortlandt St., and ask Mr. Hodgkins' advice, and 
 I will guarantee you will be fairly and pleasantly 
 dealt with. 
 
 Now, Boys, you've got your gun, we'll suppose, 
 having been told where to buy it, and how to 
 load it and take care of it, so we will pass on to 
 your gunning costume and to your equipment. 
 As regards the latter, you ought to have a sepa- 
 rate outfit as you have a separate gun, for up- 
 land and bay shooting, respectively. First and 
 foremost you want a good English leather gun- 
 case, for no sportsman who can afford it will use 
 anything else, for a woolen case is no protection 
 
 * Having once closely examined and manipulated a pair of 
 fine locks, you never need be at a loss to discriminate, for 
 they work as softly and as smoothly as a musical box. 
 
38 THE GUN. 
 
 to a gun in traveling about ; a fall from car or 
 stage-coach with such a cover would of course, in 
 nine cases out of ten, ruin it ; then, again, in a 
 woolen case, the gun not being taken apart is 
 awkward to carry from its length. 
 
 There has recently been a case invented, made 
 of the best materials, in which the barrels rest 
 upon the stock instead of being placed alongside 
 of it, thus reducing the width of the case and 
 making it compact as possible. This case can be 
 bought at $25 and will last forever. The next 
 purchase to be made is your powder-flask for up- 
 land shooting, which ought to hold \ lb., and shot 
 pouch of 2 1 Ibs. capacity. For bay shooting your 
 flask should have a capacity of 1 lb., and your 
 pouch of 5 Ibs.; but above all don't buy a shot- 
 belt, they are an abomination, and then: inventor 
 should harri-kari himself or be burned at the 
 stake, for in loading from them you have not only 
 to hold your gun in an absurdly awkward posi- 
 tion, but you must have both muzzles directed 
 point blank at your bread-basket, so in the event 
 of an explosion you will be torn to pieces in the 
 most improved style. The best pouches and 
 flasks are made by Dixon & Son, covered with 
 shark or pig skin, and tipped with German silver 
 or brass. The dearest articles of this kind are 
 
THE GUN. 39 
 
 cheapest in the end, for a good one will last a 
 life time, and a cheap one may not last a week. 
 You also want a good ebony cleaning-rod with 
 the accompaniments of screw, swab, etc., a nipple 
 wrench and a couple of extra nipples for each 
 gun ; all these you can stow away in the end of 
 your gun case. The best rig for upland shooting 
 is corduroy, it is both warm and cool and the 
 toughest material you can buy, but for summer 
 shooting heavy linen drilling is the best, it is cool 
 and very tough ; the coat should be made as a 
 sack, very loose, with breast pockets for powder 
 and shot, side pocket (not too deep) for caps, 
 and capacious pockets either side of the skirt, as 
 also a large game pocket to button on the inside 
 of the skirt taking its entire width ; a light felt 
 hat and a pair of stout walking boots with soft 
 woolen socks for the autumn, or a pair of very 
 old and hole-y boots for the summer shooting. 
 
 For duck shooting more elaborate preparations 
 are necessary, although the same corduroy suit 
 may be used, warmth being insured by very 
 heavy woolen undergarments. As the weather 
 at the season for such shooting is not only cold, 
 but wet and boisterous, it is most advisable to 
 have an outer suit of water-proof, and the very 
 best material is that used by seamen, made of 
 
40 THE GUN. 
 
 oiled cloth (not oil-cloth), the color of the clothes 
 after a few times worn being just about the hue 
 of the sedge. The clothes are loose and don't 
 impede the action of the limbs and are strong be- 
 side, and also have the merit of being cheap as a 
 suit complete, hat and all can be bought at any 
 slop-shop for $10 or less. The Sou-wester or hat 
 is admirably adapted to the purpose, as it has a 
 long flap behind which falls over the back and is 
 tied under the arms, preventing effectually any 
 water trickling down the back of your neck. A 
 good muffler, a pair of high rubber boots with 
 leggins attached, costing $7 ; a pair of long yarn 
 stockings, and an old buffalo skin, or an army 
 blanket, made of India rubber, to sit upon, will 
 complete your outfit. If you should be going to 
 any unfrequented place, a pound of candles, a 
 few boxes of matches, a couple of pounds of 
 ground coffee, a pound of tea and a little crushed 
 sugar will help you out very materially. 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 41 
 
 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 A very ancient and distinguished authority 
 upon the art of cooking, one Mrs. Glass, a lady 
 well known and highly esteemed by your great 
 grandmother, observes, in her treatise, that you 
 must first catch your rabbit and then cook it, so 
 you my Boys must not think, because you have 
 your gun and shooting rig complete, you are 
 going to bag your birds without learning to shoot 
 them, hence you will naturally ask, where is the 
 best place to learn and at what game ? In my 
 estimation there is 110 better practice for the 
 beginner than that afforded by Bay Snipe. You 
 may hunt quail or woodcock the day long and 
 not get a shot, and pigeon shooting from a trap 
 is rather too expensive for beginners, but in the 
 months of August and September, along the 
 shores of any of our great bays, from Montauk 
 Point to the Chesapeake, there is not a day or 
 an hour when the beginner may not find practice, 
 during that time the meadows are alive with 
 the smaller varieties and the sand snipe fly up 
 and down the beach in myriads. As he gains 
 
4:2 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 confidence in himself he can take his seat in a 
 blind and try his hand at the larger varieties. 
 Montauk Point, Chinekok Bay, Quogue, South 
 Oyster Bay, Far Rockaway, are all famous for 
 their snipe flats, and bay-men can always be had 
 to take one to the shooting ground, set out his 
 decoys, whistle down the birds, and to direct the 
 tyro how to and when to shoot. These men are 
 all capital marksmen, inimitable in their imita- 
 tion of the peculiar notes of the different birds 
 and thoroughly reliable, and as they furnish boat 
 and decoys, their charge of $2.50 per day is not 
 exorbitant. My advice to a beginner then would 
 be to go (if living in New York), to Great South 
 Bay, or to Barnegat Bay, early in August, and if 
 he can afford it, to hire one of these men, and 
 go out with him every day, and follow his advice 
 implicitly, as to the manner of holding his gun 
 and shooting, and at the end of the month, I con- 
 fidently assert that he will know more about 
 gunning than many an amateur who thinks him- 
 self a sportsman. The very air of the gunning 
 house where he would put up, is redolent of guns 
 and sporting, and an attentive ear will drink in 
 and profit by an immense amount of information 
 pertaining thereto, in a month's residence among 
 them. If a young man is limited as to means, 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 43 
 
 there is no necessity of employing a gunner, as 
 stools and blinds are furnished at Barnegat Bay, 
 without charge ; he can, under these circum- 
 stances, rely upon himself, and make experience 
 his teacher. Some boys are foolishly sensitive 
 about letting people see them, when undertaking 
 anything for the first time. This need not deter 
 you down at Barnegat, for you may pop away the 
 live-long day, and not a soul will be the wiser or 
 be within the sound of your gun. 
 
 After trying your hand at Beach Snipe, setting 
 and flying, and becoming satisfied that you know 
 how to hold your gun right, you can take a shot 
 at a gull, as he sails past you, and if you miss 
 him twenty more will pass within shot in an 
 hour. 
 
 After a boy has knocked over a few birds on 
 the wing, he begins to feel a confidence in him- 
 self which is very advantageous to his shooting, 
 rendering him cooler and more observant of the 
 causes which have led to his improvement, what 
 birds are in range and which are not ; the great 
 difficulty, however, which he has to overcome is 
 a reluctance to fire at a bird unless he feels cer- 
 tain that it is within range, and that he can 
 bring him down ; the only way is to let drive at 
 everything that comes along where there is a 
 
44 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 possibility of killing, for many a man misses 
 making a bag by waiting for birds to come nearer, 
 only letting them pass because lie is doubtful as 
 to their being in range. 
 
 Before going down to Barnegat, Boys, suppose 
 you read the following article, which I wrote for 
 Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, and which was pub- 
 lished under date of August 7, 1869, descriptive 
 of Sport in the Bay. It will give you an idea of 
 the locality and how the shooting is done there. 
 The article is entitled 
 
 SNIPE SHOOTING AND FISHING IN BAENEGAT BAY. 
 
 DEAE SPIEIT: On a wretchedly hot day a 
 fortnight since, returning home from business, I 
 found my wife fagged and wearied, with a rue- 
 fully woe-begone countenance, and on asking the 
 whys and wherefores I was informed that " Baby 
 was drooping, had the summer complaint, and 
 must be taken to the sea-shore." The various 
 localities were duly discussed : Long Branch too 
 fashionable and too expensive ; Newport and Cape 
 May too ditto and too far ; farm cottages by the 
 sea stupid and uncomfortable ; finally, in despair 
 I suggested Barnegat Bay! Daniel Webster, 
 after his most magnificent effort, was never 
 greeted with such applause as was elicited by 
 
BAY SNIPE SCOOTING. 45 
 
 that single word, Barnegat! Wife, boys and 
 girls fairly shouted with delight, and the house 
 shook with echoes of "Hurrah for Barnegat!" 
 Now, be it known that for years it has been my 
 habit to make semi-annual pilgrimages to Squam 
 Beach in search of game, and I have always 
 come back with a goodly bag of ducks and geese, 
 and on each oc3asion a solemn promise has been 
 exacted to take the whole kit and crew down with 
 me some time or other and now that time 
 had come and there was "no going back" on 
 them. 
 
 One day's notice was sufficient, and in twenty- 
 four hours we were all ensconced on board the 
 Jessie Hoyt, steaming down the bay to make con- 
 nection with the Delaware and Earitan Bay Bail- 
 road, ticketed through to Point Pleasant. Arriv- 
 ing at Farmingdale, we took stage to Charley 
 Maxon's at Point Pleasant, at the head of Barne- 
 gat Bay, and from thence, after an hour's drive 
 along the beach, with the ocean on the one hand 
 and bay on the other, we pulled up at Billy 
 Chadwick's gunning-house, in just eight hours 
 from New York. Now, for the benefit of the un- 
 initiated, I must mention that Squam Beach is a 
 narrow sand-pit, separated from the mainland by 
 Barnegat Bay, having an average width of five 
 
46 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 or six hundred yards, and extending from Point 
 Pleasant on the north down as far as the Del- 
 aware breakwater ; and along its length are scat- 
 tered, at intervals, houses owned by wreckers, 
 and answering as houses of entertainment for 
 gunners. The bay swarms with ducks and geese 
 during fall and spring, and with snipe in sum- 
 mer; besides offering as fine fishing as is to be 
 found in the world for bluefish, bass and sheeps- 
 head. Thus there is scarcely a month in the 
 year in which the votary of gun or rod may not 
 find enjoyment. Now Billy Chadwick's, situated 
 seven miles from the head of the bay, is the best 
 conducted of these houses, and may be reached 
 from Point Pleasant by land or by one hour's 
 sail via Tom's Eiver;' and having been the resort 
 for thirty years of gentlemen sportsmen of the 
 old school, who, while willing to rough it, would 
 have things nice and clean consequently, while 
 the house is entirely unpretentious, it is far su- 
 perior in point of comfort to the huge caravan- 
 series at Long Branch or Cape May. Cleanli- 
 ness is Madame Chadwick's first law, seconded 
 by good coffee, good sugar, good tea, rich cream, 
 and exquisitely cooked game, whether of fish or 
 feather ; no fuss, no obsequiousness, and egreg- 
 iously small bills -footed up in Billy's head. (He 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 47 
 
 keeps no accounts, save five and tally.) To this 
 place, on a lovely summer afternoon, I drove up 
 with wife, five children and nurse; and if the 
 gates of heaven had opened to them there could 
 not have been five happier faces ; and even poor 
 baby drew long breaths, as if unconsciously con- 
 suming as much as possible of the pure atmos- 
 pheric food. I must own that I had felt some 
 doubts as to my reception with such a caravan, 
 for Billy's wife had often said she didn't mind 
 how many gunners came, but she didn't want 
 women around. But my doubts were quickly 
 dispelled in the warm welcome accorded, and to 
 my astonishment found that Billy had made an 
 addition of a three-story verandah to his house, 
 and that our rooms (four adjoining, with a south- 
 easterly exposure commanding both sea and bay) 
 were as comfortable as could be wished ; and as 
 the children tumbled into bed they dropped off 
 to sleep, counting on their fingers the intervals 
 between the flashes of the Barnegat light, as it 
 burst forth and disappeared, almost eclipsed by 
 the magnificent moon, silvering impartially bay 
 and ocean. 
 
 Although I well knew that there was no better 
 snipe-shooting to be found than on Billy's flat, I 
 had no idea that so early in the season there 
 
48 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 would be any flight ; hence had simply brought 
 my gun as a matter of habit. Fancy my delight, 
 then, when I found the snipe had already ap- 
 peared, and that the prospects for sport were 
 never brighter. Leaving the youngsters dream- 
 ing of prospective fun in their moonlit chambers, 
 with a gentle southeaster playing through their 
 curls, I went down to ask Billy more particularly 
 about the snipe and the morrow's shooting. 
 Now, Billy's big' house had made him proud, so 
 he utterly refused to talk snipe till I had " jined 
 him in a glass of bourbon bought of Uncle Gilly 
 Davis fourteen years ago." Having taken the 
 medicine kindly, Billy proceeded in this wise, in 
 a roaring monotone : 
 
 " Now, Captain, if Providence had laid a tele- 
 graph down from the moon [Billy being a wrecker, 
 and consequently a moon-worshiper, always lo- 
 cates his elysium there] to your house, and sent 
 you a special dispatch, you couldn't hit it better. 
 Them yelpers keep a whistlin' and shaking their 
 yaller legs from daylight to dark. Marlin were 
 never more plenty ; jack-curlews ain't so plenty ; 
 but there is a flight of sickle-bills, and the doe- 
 witches and robin-snipe are as thick as flies 
 around a sugar-bowl." 
 
 " By the way, Bill, excuse my interrupting 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 49 
 
 you -tell me how many blinds you have, and 
 where they are." 
 
 Well, let me see, there's the inner and outer 
 blind on the flat in front of the house ; then 
 there's a couple down in Nigger-house Cove, and 
 two up in front of Uncle Sammy Chadwick's 
 and we can rig a dozen more if they are wanted. 
 Now, if the wind holds where it is, I'd take the 
 inner stand to-morrow ; but if it breezes up and 
 blows from southwest, the outer one will kill 
 more big birds; if it hauls more to eastward, 
 Nigger-house will be good ; but if it should bear 
 off northward, then Uncle Sammy's will be good 
 as any, for there won't be much shootin' done 
 anywhere." 
 
 " Good night, Billy;" and in ten minutes, after 
 having uncased my gun, filled pouch and flask, 
 and taken out a pair of hole-y shoes and old 
 pants and flannel shirt, I was sound asleep. It 
 seemed as if I had hardly got asleep when I 
 heard a tap at the door : " Ten minutes to four, 
 Sir !" " All right !" On go the old clothes, hole-y 
 shoes and straw hat, and my toilet is complete ; 
 when, hastily snatching up gun and accoutre- 
 ments, I sally forth, and step out into the early 
 dawn struggling with the full moon. The air was 
 cool and bracing, the sharp cracking of the surf 
 
50 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 on the one hand contrasting with the scarcely 
 ruffled water of the bay, barely one hundred 
 yards apart. A fast step across a wet meadow, 
 a moment's wade across the shoal, and I found 
 myself in the inner blind, formed of brush breast 
 high, with an old cane sofa the spoil of some 
 wrecked vessel for a seat, and a shelf in front 
 for the ammunition. Hastily picking up a dozen 
 decoys and placing them within twenty yards of 
 the stand, I took my seat, fresh capped my gun, 
 and, like St. Panl when he was cast away, 
 waited for day and for game. And it was not 
 long coming, either; for a black duck whizzed 
 past at about fifty yards, receiving a salute from 
 my two barrels, but the number eight shot never 
 fazed him. Not so a bunch of doe-witches, which 
 came skirling over the meadows, readily answer- 
 ing my call and circling around twice, finally 
 doubled over the stool, only to depart as mourn- 
 ers, leaving half a dozen of their number dead 
 among the deceitful decoys. Next came an old 
 jack-curlew, who evidently knew the ropes ; for, 
 coolly gazing at the stools, then making three 
 successive whirls and drawing the contents of 
 two barrels, he finally sailed off. A flock of 
 marlin came manfully to stool, but, without stop- 
 ing to bury their dead, darted away to seek con- 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 51 
 
 solation among the decoys of the outer stand, 
 where the balance of them terminated their ca- 
 reer. Many a yellow-leg and creaker shared 
 their sad fate, and by seven o'clock, in spite of 
 many a villainous miss (of course attributable to 
 oar gun), we had a bag of twenty birds; so, 
 leaving guns in the stand, we cheerfully re- 
 sponded to the breakfast bell. Assembled on 
 the piazza, I found my mosquito fleet, who, ac- 
 companied by mamma, had been watching for 
 some time our sport, but who were now clamor- 
 ous for breakfast and such a feed! Madam 
 Chadwick, under the tuition of many an epi- 
 curean sportsman, not least among whom was 
 Uncle Gilly Davis, can make a good cup of cof- 
 fee, poach an egg, broil a sheepshead, or roast 
 a snipe in a way that would do credit to Guy or 
 Downing. 
 
 After breakfast, my little ones sued out a 
 habeas corpus and obtain possession of my per- 
 son, mamma being frantic with their appeals as 
 to fishing, swimming, crabbing and sailing ; and 
 even baby, who improves by the hour, begs to 
 be taken down to the " big waatab..'" 1 Hastily 
 providing the bigger ones with hook and line 
 and showing them where they could catch sun- 
 fish and perch as fast as they could bait, and 
 
52 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 escorting mamma, baby and nurse to the beach, 
 adjusting shawls and parasols, and marking out 
 a line of sand fortifications to be at once com- 
 menced, I left them, to wade off again to the 
 blind, and barely was seated .when I heard the 
 peculiar call of the sickle-bill. Now, the sickle- 
 bill is as large as a teal-duck, and, as they stool 
 well, offer good sport. Our answering call at- 
 tracted their attention, for they hesitate in their 
 flight, diverge, and then swoop directly for the 
 stool ; again rise, circle twice, and then double 
 in front. Springing to our feet, we give them 
 four barrels; two four six are struggling 
 among the stool, and the rest, panic stricken 
 and with startled cry, hover with impunity over 
 our discharged guns. Oh ! for a breech-loader ! 
 
 Then come bunches of doe-witches, and single 
 birds, yellow-legs, and the rest. Though we do 
 some bad shooting, still by one o'clock we are 
 well satisfied. The dinner-bell now rings, and 
 papa's whistle calls together his little flock, who, 
 with bared feet and sun-burnt faces, are chock- 
 full of fishing exploits. 
 
 After dinner, lighting a cigar, we stroll over 
 to the government station-house, accompanied 
 by Billy, who has charge and keeps everything 
 in apple-pie order. He explains to the wife and 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING . 53 
 
 little ones the uses of the various implements 
 for life-saving the mortar, the rockets, the life- 
 car, the great surf-boat, etc., illustrated by sun- 
 dry incidents of his experience, of deadly dis- 
 pair succeeded by joy at being saved, of tragic 
 deaths, of wives and husbands washed ashore 
 stark and stiff, clinging in each others' arms even 
 in death ; then, after a swim, we go back to our 
 stand till the sun sets; and then, thoroughly 
 pleased with our day's sport, we lift our decoy, 
 and go again to the house in response to the 
 tea-bell. Now the fishing boats come dropping 
 in, with various experiences of sheepsheading 
 and blue-fishing and double-reefed breezes, and 
 new comers arrive from the main with late New 
 York papers and eager for the morrow's sport. 
 It was a week of days like the one described, 
 the birds coming in thicker and thicker, varied 
 by fishing and delightful cruises in the bay, 
 generally with Captain Gulick in his well ap- 
 pointed, staunch and stiff little yacht Zouave, 
 or with Johnny Chadwick, or with Charley 
 Stout, all of whom know, as if by intuition, the 
 whereabouts and habits of fish and fowl. 
 
 One morning a fog-bank suddenly rolled in 
 from the southward and hovered for several 
 hours over the sea and bay ; toward afternoon 
 
54 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 the breeze freshened, and as we looked over the 
 beach we descried a vessel ashore. Hailing the 
 house at the top of our lungs, we shouted "A 
 wreck! a wreck!" and in two minutes every 
 man, woman and child were streaming toward 
 the beach, ourselves among the first. As we 
 approached, we saw a schooner's spars looming 
 up through the fog, close on to the beach, and, 
 hailing her, found her the B. J. Wliillden, of 
 Philadelphia, wanting assistance. Billy being 
 sub-agent for the Coast Wrecking Company, 
 dispatched a man on horseback to the nearest 
 telegraph station ; while our services as a sea- 
 faring man were enlisted to draw up contracts, 
 and in twelve hours the Company's steamers 
 Eelief and Winan were alongside, and all appli- 
 ances necessary for hauling her off put into re- 
 quisition. The children were frantic with de- 
 light, as a wreck had never been even dreamed 
 of in their programme. 
 
 And now, dear SPIRIT, if any of your readers 
 want a few days' good sport, let me recommend 
 them to do as I did. They can take the Jessie 
 Hoyt at 4 p. m., buy a ticket on board for Tom's 
 Biver, arriving about eight, take the Zouave 
 across the bay, and sleep snugly at Billy Chad- 
 wick's, in readiness for the next day's sport. 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 55 
 
 The foregoing is one of several artichss writ- 
 ten by me for sporting papers, three of which I 
 propose to introduce here as descriptive of 
 Fishing, Shooting a ad Sailing in Barnegat Bay, 
 and are reliable so far as to convey a correct 
 idea of the game and mode of pursuing it. 
 
 Now, then, imagine yourselves in a blind 
 set up on a sand-flat where the water is two or 
 three feet deep, and some twenty or thirty de- 
 coys representing half a dozen varieties of snipe 
 arranged in semi-circular rows, the outer row 
 being at a distance of say twenty-five yards. 
 The blind is made of bushes about four feet 
 in height, stuck into the sand in a circular 
 form, the area of the circle being sufficiently 
 large to hold three men comfortably. Inside 
 the blind a cane settee (when you can get it), 
 or a seat made by driving down two uprights 
 with a plank nailed across them, and also a 
 similar contrivance a little more elevated, which 
 is placed in front of the seat for a shelf for 
 guns to lean against, and whereon to place the 
 ammunition. Here we are, then, loaded up 
 with 3 drams of powder and 1J ounce of No. 
 8 shot, the day is just breaking, and the bay 
 rippled by a pleasant breeze blowing from 
 the southard, which, as our stand faces to the 
 
56 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 northarcl, and these birds always fly to wind- 
 ward, is just what we want. Our attention, 
 which had been diverted by quantities of crabs 
 circulating about our feet, which are hanging 
 in the water, is suddenly aroused by a sharp 
 musical whistle. Ha! what's that? The sound 
 is unmistakable, the gunner may approximate 
 nearly but can never exactly imitate it; there is 
 a metallic ring to it which nothing but the throat 
 of the snipe can produce, but our imitation is 
 sufficient for the purpose of calling the birds 
 and we soon receive a response to our call, and 
 presently descry a large bunch of snipe heading 
 up over the meadow for our stand. Stoop low, 
 boys, and don't move your head above the 
 bushes, and pay attention to note of bird in or- 
 der that you can counterfeit it. Now, then, 
 cock your gun ; you, Jack, take them on the left 
 hand as they fly past; and you, Schuyler, let 
 drive at anything in front of you, but be sure in 
 your excitement you don't shoot across our 
 faces. Now, then, keep cool, don't fire till I say 
 the word. Now, then, look out, here they come ! 
 to-weet! to-weet! Now, then! bang! bang! 
 bang-bang! Keep quiet, can't you? don't rush 
 out, they're all dead and the wind will sweep 
 them into the stand. Now, then, load quickly, 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 57 
 
 but keep cool. No ! they can't get away, stupid. 
 Jack you fired too quick, and Schuyler you shot 
 under your bird, and don't forget that at the 
 flash, birds always dart upward ; another thing, 
 always single one particular bird, no matter if 
 there are five hundred, for birds are never so 
 close together as they seem. Are you loaded ? 
 all right! You, Jack, wade out and pick up 
 those birds. Eight nine; there are two more 
 off to the right ; there's one more ; there's an- 
 other thirteen, ain't there? What kind are 
 these, dad? They are big yellow-legs they call 
 them yelpers down here, I believe. Now then, 
 Jack, pull the longest feather you can get from 
 their wing and string them by running the end of 
 the quill through that little hole in their bill so ; 
 bunch them in half dozens and hang them in the 
 shade, for they won't keep in this hot sun. Don't 
 put them in the water, for the crabs will walk off 
 with them. What a pity we didn't bring some 
 pulverized charcoal, a little of that thrust down 
 their throats would keep them from spoiling. 
 
 What are those? Why, they are sand snipe. 
 Good to eat ? Yes, regular little butter balls, but 
 they are not worth cooking unless you get three 
 or four dozen, as one only makes a mouthful. 
 
 See, there are at least a hundred, and here they 
 3* 
 
58 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 come. Now you, Schuyler, watch your chance 
 when they double, aim at one in the centre and 
 give them both barrels. Good for you ! Why 
 it looked like a snow storm. You peppered them 
 well, there must be twenty or thirty down. Load 
 up now, for I see a big bunch of doe-witches 
 skirling around the other stand; lie low; how 
 pretty they come. Now, Schuyler, wait till I 
 give the word. Now, then! bang, bang! here 
 they come round again bang ! What ! only five ? 
 Sweet, pretty birds, aren't they? Why they look 
 just like woodcock. They must be a cross be- 
 tween woodcock and English snipe. How far 
 their eyes are set back. Pretty plumage, isn't it ? 
 Quiet ! down with you, hear those sickle-bills. 
 Now don't move ; hear how different their call is 
 from that of the yellow-leg, and how much more 
 difficult to imitate. Here they come, they're 
 pretty high though. How big they look. Here 
 they come sure enough ; now each pick out one, 
 remember, and don't fire too quick. Now, then, 
 fire ! Well, we got four, anyhow. Eun out and 
 get that fellow, Jack, he is only wing-broke. 
 Beautiful plumage, isn't it ? What a pretty con- 
 trast the white and deep brown feathers make. 
 That fellow's bill is at least eight inches long 
 he's a whopper. 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 59 
 
 Now it's breezing up from southard and they'll 
 fly lower. Jack, wade out there and try your 
 hand on that old yellow-leg stalking along. Take 
 your time, keep to leeward of him, walk slow, 
 I'll hold up my handkerchief when you're near 
 enough to shoot. Missed him, by ginger ! downed 
 him with the other barrel. Good boy, go up 
 head ; you over-shot him, Jack, with your first 
 barrel, I saw the shot furrow up the sand beyond 
 him. Down close now, here comes a jack-curlew, 
 he will give us a shot ; let me take him though. 
 Now watch as I shoot ; he won't stool, I see that, 
 but see how he is coming ; now I'll point at least 
 three feet ahead of him bang! pick him up, 
 Skile. You see he is a big fellow, but his bill is 
 not curved like the sickle-bill, and it is not nearly 
 so long; not over three inches, I should say. 
 
 Father, how many varieties of snipe are there 
 in all conscience ? I believe there are reckoned 
 to be at least twenty-eight different varieties. 
 Twenty-eight ! Yes, so the naturalists say, but 
 if we were to shoot the whole season we probably 
 should not get over a dozen different varieties. 
 
 Do you ever shoot the golden plover down 
 here? Yes, but not a great many; they are shot 
 in enormous quantities about Montauk Point, ar- 
 riving there in latter part of August. "What do 
 
60 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 they call them golden for ? Because, although 
 the general color is green, still they are marked 
 with yellowish spots almost golden, so bright are 
 they. I have seen them shot off Bill's piazza. 
 Then there's the upland plover, they are very 
 wild. We used to shoot them on Hempstead 
 Plains out of a wagon, as it was impossible to 
 get near them on foot. They are very much 
 prized by epicures. They are also shot from be- 
 hind blinds in the fields, and can be readily 
 called by an experienced whistler. 
 
 See that flock, they're big birds, and coming 
 this way, too, father. Yes, yes; I see them, 
 they're willets, sure as you're born. Hark ! what 
 a sharp, thick whistle they have. Do you hear 
 them answering our call? They'll come good, 
 only keep quiet. Don't be sticking your gun 
 barrel up in the sun like that. Now you've got 
 it down in the sand, you couldn't do a more dan- 
 gerous thing ; if you had fired it off with that 
 wad of sand in it, it would have burst to a cer- 
 tainty; never forget that, either of you. Here 
 they come ! Now, then, give it to them. Five 
 down. Now load up quick as you can, Til pick 
 them up. Did you ever see a prettier bird, they 
 are big fellows, too. What a pretty contrast be- 
 tween the white and black feathers, and how 
 
BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 61 
 
 tame they were ; did you see how they came back 
 after we had fired that was the time for a 
 breech-loader. 
 
 What are those coming, doe-witches? No, 
 robin snipe, and they're coming right at us, too. 
 Bang, bang ! ten down as I'm a sinner ; the whole 
 crowd wanted to light and would have done so 
 if we had let them. They do look like a robin, 
 don't they? and for the table they are as de- 
 licious as any snipe that flies over the bay. 
 
 How hot the water feels, its really disagree- 
 able to the feet, and if they were bare the sun 
 would blister them, so you see its a great deal 
 better to wear a pair of hole-y shoes and thin 
 pants, for you thus avoid the crabs and clam 
 shells and old bottle necks. Father I would like 
 to stay here all summer and come to this blind 
 every day; why it's as good as a picture to see all 
 these schooners working down the beach, and 
 those ships standing off, and all those boats pass- 
 ing in and out, to and from Bill's house. There 
 comes Capt. Hat. Gulick over from the main. I 
 hope there ain't any more snipe shooters aboard, 
 we're full enough at the house already, and 
 blessed if there ain't Charley Stout, too, with a 
 load of clams in the old " Hickory" they say 
 she's fifty years old if she's a day. 
 
62 BAY SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 "What's that Bill's waving to us about. Why, 
 look there, there are about fifty marlin going to 
 the other stand and there's no one in it. Keep 
 down now. Cock your guns, but don't shoot one 
 second before I teU you to. Here they come, 
 jimmenety! they're as big as ducks. Shoo ! quiet ! 
 Now, then, bang! bang! bang! Five six 
 seven, by all that's lovely ! Pick 'em up, boys, 
 for I hear the dinner-bell. Now, then, gather up 
 your birds ; hold your guns high up so the water 
 won't splash ; come along, we have had one good 
 day, anyhow. 
 
 This is a pretty good wade, boys, look out for 
 your guns, don't stumble. Hullo! here comes 
 Bill to meet us. Well, boys, "you have ever- 
 lastingly rattled them" to-day, sure enough, your 
 stand was like Tort Sumter. Who was it that 
 shot that single jack? he was everlastingly a 
 bilin' along. Now, then, hurry up, boys, if you're 
 going to take a swim, for supper will be ready in 
 half an hour. 
 
 So off we put for the surf, and a good supper 
 and a good smoke for papa ends the day. 
 
ENGLISH SNIPE. 63 
 
 ENGLISH SNIPE. 
 
 When I was a lad, Mr. Henry William Her- 
 bert, so well known as Frank Forrester, as ac- 
 complished a sportsman and gentleman as ever 
 lived, gave lessons in a school where I was be- 
 ing educated, and of course the big boys used oc- 
 casionally, when he was in a good humor, beguile 
 him into converse upon sporting matters; and 
 although not in that category (not being a big 
 boy) myself, still I used to listen with avidity, 
 and I well remember hearing him say: "Boys, 
 the most difficult bird to shoot in America is the 
 English snipe, and when you can knock over your 
 two birds right and left you may consider your- 
 self a good shot ;" and he never said a truer word, 
 for a successful snipe shot must be considered a 
 good shot anywhere. This bird may be ranked 
 second to no game bird in America, both for the 
 sport he affords, as well as for the table, for no 
 more delicious morsel tempts the palate of the 
 epicure ; yet, strange to say, although so highly 
 appreciated, they are more plentiful the country 
 over than any bird that flies. North, south, east 
 and west, wherever there are stretches of meadow 
 
64 ENGLISH SNIPE. 
 
 land along our river bottoms, along our great 
 lakes and the ocean, they periodically appear. 
 They breed in Labrador and appear during the 
 late spring months with their young on the flats 
 in the vicinity of the St. Lawrence, where they are 
 shot in large numbers, as well as along the north- 
 ern lakes, gradually working their way to the 
 south, reaching us here late in September, and 
 remaining with us until the early frost, and then 
 move off to the far south, where they literally 
 swarm during the winter months. They are an 
 extremely erratic and uncertain bird to find ; one 
 day they will be seen in large, quantities feeding 
 on a neighboring meadow, the next there will not 
 one be found. Being exceedingly sensitive to 
 changes of temperature, a blustering day or two 
 will be sufficient to effect an entire change of 
 base ; or a heavy tide, over-rimning their feeding 
 ground, will frequently disperse them. In our 
 district of country, say within an area of 200 
 miles around New York, the English snipe makes 
 his appearance somewhere from 20th March to 
 15th April, according to the season, for the frost 
 must be sufficiently out of the ground to enable 
 him to bore for his food worms, larvae of in- 
 sects, roots of tender aquatic plants, etc., etc. 
 they are then migrating towards the north for the 
 
ENGLISH SNIPE. 65 
 
 purpose of incubation, and besides being exceed- 
 ingly shy, they stay but a short time. Perhaps 
 the best day to choose for a snipe shoot is after a 
 long north-easterly storm on a balmy day in 
 April, but the spring birds after all are shy and 
 thin and do not afford any very great sport. They 
 reappear, however, in September and October, 
 when they are in good condition, and they then 
 lay better to the dogs and it's much more satis- 
 factory sport. The hunting of these birds in- 
 volves an enormous deal of fatigue, as they lie 
 hidden in treacherous morasses, every step 
 through which frequently brings the sportsman 
 knee deep, and often waist deep, in the mud and 
 mire, and the mere physical exertion necessary 
 to get over a few miles of such ground is apt, 
 and undoubtedly does, much towards unsettling 
 a man's nerves and interferes with his shooting. 
 Independently of all else, no birds lie so closely 
 as do these snipe, and hidden, as they are, under 
 tussocks of grass, it requires a keen scent to find 
 them, frequently permitting the dogs to run over 
 them before they will get up ; and when they rise 
 they do it with such lightning swiftness and on 
 such an eccentric zig-zag that it requires long 
 practice to kill them, and an expert marker to 
 mark them down. The usual dodge, so far as I 
 
66 ENGLISH SNIPE. 
 
 can judge, is to dart up breast high and then to 
 shoot off either to the right or left like lightning, 
 and appearing so small a mark it requires con- 
 siderable skill to cover them ; indeed, a man who 
 can, on such an unstable foundation, and after 
 floundering and plunging about in a hot sun for 
 hours on a wet meadow, a man, I say, who can, 
 under such circumstances, with any certainty 
 kill his double birds may not be ashamed of his 
 shooting. 
 
 In former years those extensive flats known as 
 the Newark and Paterson Meadows, used to be 
 a favorite feeding ground, and being easy of ac- 
 cess to New York, a lively fusilade was carried 
 on from the time of their appearance until their 
 disappearance ; but, from what I can learn, such 
 constant shooting has had the effect of driving 
 them to more secluded feeding grounds, although 
 a moderate day's sport may still be enjoyed in 
 these localities. The meadows along the Karitan 
 and Delaware Eivers still attract them, and be- 
 ing accessible afford the means of enjoyment to 
 many sportsmen from New York and Philadel- 
 phia; but if any one wants a real good day's 
 sport let me recommend him to go to " Point 
 Pleasant," at the northern extremitv of Barnegat 
 Bay (accessible by rail from New York in three 
 
ENGLISH SNIPE. 67 
 
 hours' time), and securing tlie services of as fine 
 a shot as ever fired a gun, Jimmy Loveman, 
 take a tramp over the neighboring meadows a 
 line addressed to Jimmy will secure an immedi- 
 ate reply as to proper time to go, etc., etc. 
 Jimmy has good dogs always, and dogs broken 
 on snipe, which is to the last degree important, 
 for otherwise a dog, however good his pedigree, 
 and however keen his nose, and excellent though 
 he may be on woodcock, for English snipe he is 
 good for nothing ; indeed, excepting for retriev- 
 ing purposes on a meadow where snipe are 
 plenty, I would rather be without a dog than 
 with one, provided I am not entirely assured of 
 his proficiency in this respect, having had several 
 days' shooting spoiled by woodcock and quail 
 dogs, whose owner insisted upon bringing them, 
 acting upon the theory that a good dog, well 
 broken, is good for every kind of game. 
 
 For autumn snipe shooting a man wants as 
 light a rig as possible, for, although the morn- 
 ings and evenings are cool, a September or Oc- 
 tober sun is hot, and where a man has to haul 
 either leg out of two or three feet of sticky mire 
 every time he steps he wants as little clothing as 
 possible, a light gun and as little ammunition 
 as he can manage to make out with. A sharp 
 
68 ENGLISH SNIPE. 
 
 shooting N.o. 12 gun, weighing 7^ Ibs., shooting 
 2 1 drams of powder and an ounce of No. 8 shot, 
 is about the ticket. If you have to drive any 
 distance a heavy overcoat is good for morning 
 and evening, and especially after the day's exer- 
 cise. For autumn shooting I should recommend 
 a pair of very thin hole-y boots over light woolen 
 socks, the pantaloon tied around the ankle ; but 
 for spring shooting, where the water is icy cold, 
 one wants a pair of high boots with leggins at- 
 tached, and flannel under clothing. 
 
 If I attempted to give a disquisition upon the 
 peculiar habits of the snipe I might write half a 
 dozen chapters, but it would be entirely out of 
 place here, and I will simply say that you must 
 not let the idea run away with you that they con- 
 fine themselves entirely to wet, for its a great 
 mistake so to suppose ; on the contrary, when 
 the tides are very high and cover the meadows, 
 they will retreat to fields at a considerable dis- 
 tance, and, under those circumstances, I have 
 put them up from corn fields and upland meadows 
 in considerable numbers. 
 
DUCKING. 69 
 
 DUCKING. 
 
 Give me duck shooting, I say, above all other. 
 It's all very fine to shoot at a deer, but it is not so 
 fine to be backed up against a pine tree for half 
 a dozen hours waiting for him to come, and when 
 he does ten to one you won't be ready for him 
 and will miss him. No ! no ! I say there is no 
 sport that is accessible to us denizens of cities 
 so exciting as duck and goose shooting. The 
 charm consists, perhaps, not so much in bringing 
 down the game as in the surroundings ; the total 
 and absolute change from the conventionalism of 
 city life, involving as it does, as a general thing, 
 what is usually considered great hardship and 
 exposure, but which in reality is the charm of 
 the expedition. To a man who has been caged 
 for months in an office, reduced to a mere 
 machine, run for the purpose of turning out so 
 many dollars per diem, whose only exercise has 
 been an occasional walk of a mile, or so, between 
 his luxurious residence and his place of business, 
 the change to a fisherman's hovel on an open 
 beach, with a snow storm driving through its 
 every crack and cranny, could hardly be more 
 
70 BUCKING. 
 
 radical ; accustomed to extreme city hours, the 
 pillow at eight p.m., and the reveill^ at three 
 a. m., must be startling. A four miles' sail in a 
 sneak "box" to his shooting point, before dawn, 
 and a day passed in recumbent position, on a 
 wet meadow, all this, it must be confessed, must 
 seem novel, yet there is an indescribable some- 
 thing about it which yearly attracts men of re- 
 finement and means, who at home enjoy every 
 luxury which money can bestow ; to me it is 
 irresistible. The sail across the bay, of an 
 autumnal night, under a close-reefed sail, with a 
 nor'easter howling about us; the arrival and 
 honest shake of the rough hand ; the thundering 
 breaker bursting on the beach ; the welcome 
 supper ; the pipe in the smoky bar, the night- 
 cap of mountain dew, the old fashioned feather 
 bed, with the gale driving the snow in upon you, 
 and the roar of the surf as a lullaby ; the flaring 
 candle in your eyes, summoning you to get up ; 
 the steaming breakfast, partaken by a dozen 
 men in full hunting costume ; the exit into the 
 frosty air of a November night, for night it is yet 
 and will be for two hours ; the sail across the 
 bay to your point, in the silent watches of the 
 night. Beaching the point, the reconstruction 
 of the nest or blind, the adjustment of water- 
 
DUCKING. 71 
 
 proof, then the eager waiting for day and game, 
 the "honk" of the gunner, as a bunch of black 
 duck come winding round the point, scarce dis- 
 cernible in the gloaming; the admonitory "get 
 ready," the half-cock of the gun, the bang! bang! 
 bang ! the splash of the game in the water, all ! 
 all ! carries with it a fascination too irresistible 
 to be analysed on rationalistic grounds. I will 
 tell you what it is. It is manhood asserting its 
 dignity ! Shut up in offices, or dens rather, of 
 law or of commerce, climbing a daily treadmill, 
 slaves to our customers or our clients, we in- 
 wardly feel a contempt for ourselves, and often- 
 times an abhorrence for our calling and those 
 whose patronage gives us our bread and butter ; 
 to such this life is a safety valve. * * * 
 
 As the strong nor'easter sweeps across the bay, 
 we spring forward and lend a hand at reefing ; a 
 bunch of geese come to our stand, we snatch our 
 No. 6 gun and bring half-a-dozen floundering to 
 the water ; a vessel comes ashore and we volunteer 
 our services to board her. What is the motive 
 which prompts to all this seeming sacrifice ? 
 Simply and only a desire to convince ourselves 
 that " a mon's a mon for a' that." 
 
 The autumnal ducking season sets in in Sep- 
 tember and continues until cold weather, and is 
 
72 DUCKING. 
 
 enjoyed all along the shores of the Eastern 
 States, through the Vineyard Sounds, at Mon- 
 tauk Point, Chinekok Bay, Great South Bay, 
 Oyster Bay, Jamaica Bay, Barnegat Bay, the 
 Chesapeake, and the sounds along the seaboard 
 of the Southern States. Those living in New 
 York may, in four or five hours, reach the 
 localities by taking the Long Island road for 
 the points on Great South Bay, Chinekok Bay, 
 or South Oyster Bay, or by the Jersey Southern 
 Railway to Barnegat Bay. There is but little 
 doubt, however, that the fall shooting, in these 
 localities, is over done, and that he who has the 
 means to go to Currituck will enjoy better 
 shooting there. In the vicinity of Norfolk even, 
 (without going so far as Currituck,) at Cherry- 
 stone and other places, the fowling is especially 
 fine, a party of four friends of mine having 
 bagged, last year, within a week, over two hun- 
 dred head of geese and brant. Currituck, 
 although on the coast of North Carolina, is not 
 inaccessible, for one can leave the foot of 
 Cortlandt street at 8.45 a.m., arrive at Norfolk 
 next morning; take propeller, which connects 
 through the Dismal Swamp, and be on his 
 ground before evening, stay ten days, and his 
 trip will not necessarily cost him over a hundred 
 
DUCKING. 73 
 
 dollars. I have before told you that for duck 
 shooting you want all your wrappers and water- 
 proofs and long India rubber boots, a gun heavy 
 in the breech, say a No. 8 guage, charged with 
 five drams of Curtis & Harvey powder and 
 two ounces No. 4 shot, if shooting ducks alone, 
 but if there is a chance for geese, the second 
 barrel should be loaded with double B's, though, 
 of course, if you shoot a breech-loader, you can 
 shift your charge at pleasure. None but those 
 who have witnessed it, can conceive of the vast 
 number of ducks and geese that congregate in 
 the bays above mentioned. They can often be 
 computed by the tens of thousands, and yet it 
 not unfrequently occurs that when the largest 
 number is in the bay the shooting is most 
 indifferent ; this is easily accounted for, in- 
 asmuch as it is only in boisterous weather that 
 the fowl leave their feeding ground and fly off 
 from point to point ; hence the best time to go 
 to those places is after a heavy gale of wind, 
 which generally raises a sea in the bays and the 
 tide also, which routs the fowl up so that 
 they keep on the wing. The best time, in my 
 opinion, to go to Long Island, in the autumn, 
 for ducks and geese (in the average season) 
 is the 1st November ; to the upper end of 
 
74 DUCKING. 
 
 Barnegat Bay, about the same time, but down 
 below the inlet, the 15th of the month is early 
 enough, and to Norfolk or Currituck a month 
 later. 
 
 For the spring shooting one must be governed 
 entirely by the season, but as soon as he hears 
 that the bays are free from ice, he may go 
 down with impunity. I have shot off North- 
 west Point, in upper end of Barnegat Bay, as 
 early as 22d February, but as a general thing 
 the 20th March is quite early enough. The 
 spring shooting is by far the finest, and the 
 game much more abundant. Immense numbers 
 of geese were killed at South Oyster Bay, last 
 spring, as late as middle of April, and I never 
 saw such vast flocks of braiit as were congre- 
 gated about the inlet of Barnegat Bay, at the 
 same time. 
 
 The varieties of ducks that we usually shoot 
 in this section of country are the black duck, 
 widgeon, sprigtail, green and blue-winged teal, 
 the spoon-bill, canvas-back, red-head, broad-bill, 
 whistler, dipper, old wife, and shell-drake ; we 
 also shoot the brant and Canada geese in large 
 quantities, but only occasionally a swan. In- 
 deed, I have in one day's shooting, in Barnegat 
 Bay, shot at all these varieties. 
 
BUCKING. 75 
 
 Duck and goose shooting from points is not 
 disagreeable, as one can move about when the 
 game is not flying thick, and he can always 
 keep out of the wind, and generally manage to 
 keep warm, but in shooting out of boats he is 
 obliged to lie the greater part of the time, as if 
 he were in his coffin, without moving a muscle, 
 the consequence is that he is cramped and stiff 
 to the last degree, and, if unaccustomed to it, is 
 in no condition to shoot, and rarely does any 
 execution at the first. Indeed a man, to be a 
 good shot at ducks, must have had experience, 
 for not only the recumbent position and the 
 heavy wrappings, but the lightning speed of the 
 birds and their peculiar gyrations upset his 
 calculations and he will inevitably, for a time, 
 shoot behind them and frequently above them, 
 as these birds will jump at the flash and climb 
 into the air with miraculous velocity. As the 
 usual flight of these birds is sixty miles per 
 hour and when disturbed reaches ninety miles, 
 it is very easy to shoot behind them, indeed by 
 no possibility can they be hit unless the gun is 
 aimed at least one foot ahead of them. 
 
 In point of numbers, the quantity of wild fowl 
 that pass and repass our bays and estuaries, 
 each fall and spring, is simply inconceivable. 
 
76 DUCKING. 
 
 I have seen them feeding, acres on acres of 
 them, and when they rose it was like distant 
 thunder, and like a huge curtain spread before 
 the sun ; and remember an occasion, sitting on 
 the beach, on a soft balmy day in November, 
 from early in the morning until night, and 
 scarcely seeing a break in the continuous line 
 of ducks, geese and brant, bound south. How 
 many fowl passed in those seven or eight hours 
 it would be a difficult matter to compute. 
 
 DUCK SHOOTING IN BAENEGAT BAY. 
 
 " Written by me for Wilkes 9 Spirit of the 
 Times" Nov. 19, 1864. 
 
 Last week, having a little spare time on our 
 hands, we resolved to go down to Barnegat 
 Bay and have a shot at the ducks, and we 
 accordingly duly announced our intention in 
 family council, whereupon our better half imme- 
 diately had a vision of a week's rollicking, un- 
 becoming a pater-familias, to be followed by a 
 sharp attack of inflammatory rheumatism. The 
 youngsters, however, received the announce- 
 ment with demonstrations of evident delight, as 
 being suggestive of long stories for approaching 
 winter's entertainments, and forthwith began to 
 " quack" and "honk," in the most deafening 
 
DUCKING. 77 
 
 manner, and frantic rushes were made for our 
 boots, over-alls and shooting equipments gen- 
 erally. No. 4, whom we call the General, in his 
 military capacity, seized our gun ; No. 3, who, 
 judging from her pugnacious disposition, will 
 be a second Joan d'Arc, joining issue for its pos- 
 session, while No. 2, rejoicing in the name of 
 Schuyler, and true to his historic antecedents, 
 was bestowing his attention upon the ammuni- 
 tion, and No. 1, (our John,) quietly assumed the 
 post of Inspector-General and issued his orders 
 with great dignity. Our preparations made, we 
 proceeded to the steamboat, but found to our 
 consternation, shared by some twenty sportsmen, 
 that she was incapacitated and could not leave. 
 An hour of awful suspense elapsed, setters and 
 pointers gave forth low growls of dissatisfaction, 
 and gunners, after staring each other in the 
 face and out of countenance, gradually, under 
 the influence of case bottles, grew friendly and 
 breathed vows of vengeance against steamers 
 generally. A substitute was, however, finally 
 furnished, when, shifting our traps, we were soon 
 steaming down the bay, and a picturesque group 
 we formed, in our gunning costumes, with half- 
 a-dozen thoughtful dogs artistically interspersed 
 among us. Away we whisked down the bay, pass.- 
 
78 DUCKING. 
 
 ing Owl's Head, Lafayette, through the Swash 
 Channel to Port Monmouth, and thence by rail 
 and stage to Tom's Eiver, where, having had a 
 capital feed, we got aboard the little " Zouave," 
 and stretched across the bay to Bill Chadwick's. 
 " Quango," the great Newfoundland, saluting us 
 as we touch the beach, accompanied us to the 
 house, where we found a " goodlie" company of 
 gunners assembled. 
 
 The little low bar-room looked cosily familiar 
 to us, as we peered through a cloud of tobacco- 
 smoke, as did the faces of the various gunners 
 there assembled, Jno. Harbor, Zeph., Charley 
 Stout, Dave, Lishe, Jno. Gaunt, and the rest of 
 them, as they warmly welcomed us. The style 
 of accommodation is peculiar to the beach, and 
 gunners are generally expected to sleep double. 
 We, ourselves, were too tired to be particular, so 
 we turned in with our boatman, and had hardly, 
 as Ave thought, got to sleep, when a candle 
 flashed before our eyes, and a rough shake of 
 the shoulder, brought us to the consciousness 
 that it was three o' clock, a. m., and time to get 
 up. Without waiting to yawn, we sprang up, 
 and in a quarter of an hour were arrayed in full 
 shooting costume and were sitting down to a 
 substantial breakfast. It was still pitch dark 
 
DUCKING. 79 
 
 when we slipped into our sneak boat, nor indeed 
 had the day fairly broken until we were comfort- 
 ably sitting in our blind, with our gun at half- 
 cock, waiting for a flock of ducks. By way of 
 digression, let us here state what is, in our opin- 
 ion, an essential to the comfort of the duck 
 shooter. What we call blinds in the northern 
 part of the bay, are simply points of meadow, 
 jutting out into the bay, always damp and fre- 
 quently very wet ; on the extreme end of these 
 points, a circular rampart of reeds and sea grass, 
 about thirty inches high is thrown up, within 
 which the gunners (two generally,) recline, watch- 
 ing their decoys, which float at anchor within 
 thirty yards of the point. Now as the gunner is 
 always exposed to the bleak winds sweeping 
 over the meadows, and is obliged twenty times 
 a day to he flat on his back in the wet sedge, it 
 becomes necessary to provide the proper clothing 
 to guard against a thorough wetting, with its 
 attendants of cold and rheumatics. We there- 
 fore make the following suggestions, viz : heavy 
 woolen stockings and the thickest possible 
 woolen drawers and under-shirts, as well as a 
 worsted muffler for the throat, with a pair of 
 long loose rubber boots, and over these again an 
 oil-skin suit (the color of the sedge), which can 
 
80 DUCKING. 
 
 be bought at any slop shop along West street, 
 hat and all, for $10. We should also advise an 
 India-rubber army blanket, or a buffalo robe, 
 and an army satchel for ammunition. 
 
 When we broke off into the foregoing digres- 
 sion, we were reclining on our batteries awaiting 
 a shot. Unfortunately for us, however, the wind 
 had been strong from northwest for six weeks 
 past and was then blowing therefrom, the very 
 worst possible direction, and the weather had 
 been so mild that the ducks had hardly begun 
 to migrate and the only ones that one could hope 
 to get a bang at were the regular traders, who 
 rarely came to stool, being too knowing by half. 
 Just as day was breaking, however, half a dozen 
 dippers came down and took a look at our stool, 
 but seeing the point, wheeled and shot away, 
 but took with them a couple of charges, killing 
 two and crippling a third. Barely were we loaded 
 again, when " quack, quack," goes the gunner, 
 and three black ducks come sweeping along, spy 
 the stool, give an answering " quack," but sail 
 out of gunshot. Hardly are they gone by, when 
 down we go again p-r-r-r, p-r-r-r, and up come a 
 bunch of broad-bill, and as they flutter over the 
 stool we give them three barrels and turn them 
 over on their backs ; while loading, a flock of 
 
DUCKING. 81 
 
 mallard poise over us for an instant, answer our 
 " quack," but catching sight of us, are off again ; 
 hardly are we capped before, just over the edge 
 of the horizon, we see a long string of geese 
 heading for us this time, and we as flat as pan- 
 cakes (a small pool of water trickling down the 
 back of our necks) * * "Honk, honk" from 
 the stand " honk, honk," goes goosey, and down 
 comes the flock within a couple of hundred yards 
 of the stool, then follows a long conversation 
 between the inmates of the stand and the differ- 
 ent members of the flock first, the conventional 
 "honk," which being politely answered is equiva- 
 lent to "How do you do?" "Very well, thank 
 you ! " Then comes a low quack, quack, quack 
 (not unlike the enunciation of a London cabby, 
 on a wet night, when, in shortest and most gut- 
 teral tones, he compresses into the smallest pos- 
 sible dimensions the word cab), this last quack, 
 signifies walk in if you please, after which, as 
 goosey more nearly approaches, a dialogue in an 
 unknown dialect ensues between fowl and gunner, 
 which generally ends in the slaughter of the 
 victim. * * * * Hallo ! here come the ducks 
 again, three big black ducks quack ! quack ! 
 bang ! bang ! down go two and away swims off 
 the third, badly hit though. 
 
82 DUCKING. 
 
 "John! how wild the birds are, don't you 
 think they get wilder every year ? " " Well, 
 yes, in the earlier part of the season, but when 
 the flight begins in earnest, the new comers 
 come to stool as well as ever." " There are 
 a good many gunning houses along the bay, 
 eh, John?" "Yes, coming down the beach from 
 the point, there's Jakey's, Bill Chadwick's, 
 Ortley's, Amos Grant's, and Martin's at the 
 inlet, Double Jim's and Kenzie's below that, 
 beside a score on the main, and they all have 
 their advantages too. In the early fall, the 
 shooting at the head of the bay is best, but 
 toward December, when the geese and brant 
 come, we think that Double Jim's and Kenzie's 
 kill most ; bat Bill Chadwick's is a sort of inter- 
 mediate place, embodying greater advantages 
 than any." * * * Although we have before 
 described Chadwick's, we will again venture a 
 few passing words upon it. 
 
 Imagine a sand-spit betwixt bay and ocean, 
 say eighteen hundred yards across, of glittering 
 white sand thrown up into hummocks of all con- 
 ceivable shapes by the autumnal gales, and mid- 
 way between the raging surf and the waters of 
 the bay a large, low beach-house, the roof slop- 
 ing down to within six feet of the ground, shelter- 
 
DUCKING. 83 
 
 ing a low corridor surrounding it, the only other 
 building in sight of the life-boat station. Every- 
 thing is suggestive of desolation as we approach, 
 all the gunners being absent on the various 
 points. Not a soul is to be seen, the only visible 
 object beside the house being the debris of 
 wrecks, here a rudder with its spokeless wheel 
 and torn stealing gear, there a spectral looking 
 spar, encircled by the top, looking like the cross 
 which, in Spanish countries, is raised over the 
 murdered man. 
 
 As we step ashore, " Quango," a Newfoundland 
 bitch, who swam ashore from a wreck, comes 
 down to meet us, expressing the most canine af- 
 fection at our return, and as we walked into the 
 yard everything reminds us even more forcibly 
 of ruin and desolation ; and as our eye wanders 
 over the "head-boards" washed ashore from 
 wrecked ships nailed along the corridor, we un- 
 consciously read aloud the names : " Samuel Wil- 
 letts," " Pilgrim," " T. Hathorn," "Darax," "Hon- 
 duras" and a husky, croaking, shaky voice at 
 our side says : "Aye ! young man, you may well 
 speak low, you would whisper those names if you 
 had see'd what I have see'd. I see'd 'em all 
 come ashore and' helped save all them as was 
 saved, and to bury them as was dead." Heigho ! 
 
84: DUCKING. 
 
 there were some fine lads amongst those four- 
 teen men as they lay stiff and stark on the cold 
 wet sand, and the "poor dear," as she stood 
 upon the broken deck, her hair streaming in the 
 wind, with her arms around her husband's neck ; 
 and afterwards as they lay together in the clear 
 moonlight with faces as white as the sand about 
 them, and their arms, though stiff and stark, still 
 encircling each other. Eh ! boys ! you may well 
 look sad you may see 'em yet in any wild night 
 as the moon breaks through the cloud drifts, if 
 you walk along the beach. But, though desolate 
 outside, there's no cosier place within than Bill 
 Chadwick's, and we defy any one to be gloomy 
 as he sits about the bar-room fire after the day's 
 sport is over, exchanging experiences, cleaning 
 guns, replenishing ammunition and listening to 
 a Mosaic conversation never outdone since the 
 building of Babel. * * * * Every gunner 
 has his say; every phase of duck-shooting is dis- 
 cussed ; guns are inspected and compared, and 
 loud above the rest a young man is eloquent up- 
 on the beauties of Hakodadi women, appeal- 
 ing, in support of his assertions, to another 
 who had spent years in the China seas smug- 
 gling opium. 
 
 This polyglot is going on in an atmosphere of 
 
QUAIL. 85 
 
 tobacco smoke dense as a London fog, indeed in 
 that low murky room scarce six feet high, from 
 floor to ceiling, barely lighted by a kerosene 
 lamp, whose flickering flames struggled with the 
 tobacco fumes for mastery, there was a grouping 
 picturesque in costume, noble in form, with sur- 
 roundings of fowling gear and game that would 
 have delighted Vandyke or Murillo. 
 
 QUAIL. 
 
 Boys, you know almost as much about the 
 habits of pretty Bob White as I can teach you. 
 You have heard him whistling to his wife and 
 children so many times of a still summer day, 
 and hopping saucily ahead of the carriage in 
 the roadway, as much as to say, "it isn't No- 
 vember yet, and I'm all right 'till then," that 
 it is hardly worth my while to dwell long up- 
 on his habits, and you know too, you young 
 scamps, that the old lady lays a dozen prettily 
 speckled eggs, and that if she is not bothered 
 by young poachers like you, she will, after 
 hatching and bringing up properly her first lit- 
 
86 QUAIL. 
 
 tie family, proceed to lay, and then set and 
 hatch them out too, and they say that she will 
 sometimes rear a third set of children. All this, 
 however, depends upon the season. If the 
 spring is late and cold, she would not have time 
 for all this; and if the early spring should be 
 followed by wet months of May and June, the 
 young broods will die altogether, and only the 
 old birds will be left. It has happened in our 
 part of the country several times, that after a 
 very hard winter and wet spring, that the old 
 birds have been shot off in the fall, that there 
 have been almost none left at all; and it has 
 been only owing to the wonderful breeding 
 powers of the bird that it has not altogether dis- 
 appeared. Heavy snow storms are very hard 
 upon the Quail, in that it covers up all their 
 means of subsistence, burying them at the same 
 time; and if the top of the snow crusts with ice, 
 the birds perish, as they cannot then force their 
 way out. You remember, perhaps, in the fall of 
 the year, at the beginning of cold weather, to 
 have seen a covey of birds huddled together; 
 you recollect they form a circle, with their heads 
 out and tails in. In this position a snow storm 
 often overtakes them, completely covering them 
 up to the depth of a foot or more. If the snow 
 
QUAIL. 87 
 
 does not crust, they, by their united strength, 
 manage to lift this snow from on top of them, 
 and fly off to neighboring barn-yards and share 
 the food of the poultry, often becoming very 
 tame ; but if a rain follows the snow and then a 
 sharp frost, the snow proves their winding sheet. 
 We fortunately live in a climate which is pecu- 
 liarly favorable to them, and if they are properly 
 protected there need be no apprehension of their 
 extinction ; but if pot-hunters and gunners for 
 a market, and other men who ought and do 
 know r better, insist upon shooting them all the 
 year round, it will only require two or three hard 
 winters and unfavorable springs to make them 
 as scarce as the mastodon. The period allowed 
 under Jersey law for shooting them is from the 
 first of November until the first of January, and 
 any one who can shoot them within that period 
 is welcome to them, for they are in prime con- 
 dition and strong of flight, and worthy of the 
 sportsman's lead. 
 
 The universality of the quail in every country 
 and every clime save the very cold is an aston- 
 ishing thing. I myself have shot them in large 
 numbers in Western Mexico, where the thermom- 
 eter never falls below 70, and frequently ranges 
 at 100 to 105 Fahrenheit, and still their flesh 
 
88 QUAIL. 
 
 was as firm as if shot here. All through the 
 great West, and from Oregon to Sonora, on the 
 Pacific, these birds abound, and on the Pacific 
 Slope they are a positive pest to the farmer ; and 
 even so near to us as the valley of the Ohio 
 River, at a point which we, living in New York, 
 may easily reach in twenty-four hours, these 
 birds are netted in enormous quantities, and un- 
 like any other game bird, they thrive in the 
 presence of civilization; and, as I before re- 
 marked, were it not for the poacher and pot- 
 hunter, we need never want a day's sport over 
 our grain stubble from November to January. 
 
 Sportsmen living in the City of New York can, 
 within one hour's travel on any railroad running 
 north, south, east or west, get upon quail ground; 
 but, as in the vicinity of the city land-owners are 
 beguiling to preserve their game, one cannot well 
 attempt to shoot without permission, and that 
 permission may not be granted ; therefore, any 
 one who could spare the time had far better go 
 further, with a certainty of sport as a reward for 
 his trouble. Southern and Eastern New Jersey 
 swarms with quail, and is made accessible by the 
 Southern Railroad of New Jersey ; Pennsylvania 
 by the New Jersey Railroad in conjunction with 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad, making any small 
 
QUAIL. 89 
 
 town fifty miles west of Philadelphia a base of 
 operations. Havre de Grasse in Maryland is a 
 good central point from whence to diverge, or 
 Parker sburg, Virginia, on the Baltimore and 
 Ohio Railroad. 
 
 One great reason why quail shooting is so 
 highly esteemed by sportsmen, is that these birds 
 give such a capital opportunity for the display of 
 the admirable qualities of the thorough-bred and 
 well-trained hunting dog ; in fact, it is the only 
 shooting in this country where a dog, so to speak, 
 can do himself justice. In woodcock shooting, 
 in nine cases out of ten, the dog is hidden in 
 some impenetrable swamp or cane-break, and 
 often after standing on a bird till his patience 
 gives out or the bird flies, he finally, in disgust, 
 seeks his master, whose efforts to reach him have 
 been unsuccessful. In snipe shooting the unfor- 
 tunate dog is baffled in his scent by the water or 
 the meadows, and wearied out by dragging him- 
 self through mud and mire, and pursuing birds 
 that will not lie to his point. But in quail shoot- 
 ing all this is reversed; these birds love the 
 wheat, rye and oat stubble, where the ground is 
 hard and firm, and especially the buckwheat 
 stubble, where they luxuriate if undisturbed ; 
 and in an open country such as Pennsylvania, 
 
90 QUAIL. 
 
 where there is but little cover and the birds are 
 not over much shot at, half a dozen bevies may 
 often be found within an area of one hundred 
 acres, which may be almost exterminated without 
 leaving the open at all. Here it is that the finer 
 qualities of thoroughly broken dogs may be seen 
 to advantage and appreciated. How quiet tfrey 
 lie at your feet among the buffalo skins, their soft 
 eyes occasionally meeting yours, as if deprecating 
 the length of the drive ; yet how they tremble in 
 eager expectation of the sport they know that 
 they are to participate in. How, although quiv- 
 ering with excitement, how obediently they come 
 to heel and charge, while you are loading ; and 
 then, as you wave them right to left, how they 
 shoot like hghtning across the stubble field, and 
 before the first impetus of their rush is accom- 
 plished, obedient to the first note of your whistle, 
 how they pause in mid career, intelligently raise 
 their heads, and then, at a second signal, quarter 
 the ground with beautiful precision. Suddenly 
 their speed is decreased, their movements become 
 more guarded, their bodies quiver with intense 
 excitement, and abruptly they stop, coming to a 
 dead halt, and grow as stiff as pieces of statuary, 
 the one in advance of the other. This is a sight 
 that can only be appreciated by a sportsman, 
 
QUAIL. 91 
 
 but by him it is beloved above all others. 
 Boys, suppose we liave a day with the quails. 
 The morning is clear and frosty, the 
 atmosphere crystalline and bracing, but a south- 
 erly wind admonishes us not to dress too heavily, 
 or, as the sun gets higher, we e&all suffer from 
 the heat. Arrayed in corduroy, with well-fitting 
 stout walking shoes, and a light overcoat to break 
 the chilliness, we throw our gun cases into the 
 wagon, and, whistling to our dogs eagerly await- 
 ing the signal, and who, in obedience, jump in 
 and stow themselves away without our assist- 
 ance, we drive off at a brisk trot. A few miles 
 of fine road brings us to a snug country tavern, 
 where leaving our team, we are soon on our 
 shooting ground, which discovers a range of sev- 
 eral hundred acres of closely harvested grain 
 stubble. Calling our dogs into heel, we jump a 
 ditch, and, separating, advance abreast, waving 
 our dogs onward. How well they know their 
 business ! how swiftly, yet how cautiously, they 
 hunt. Toho! toho ! "Shot!" good dog! care- 
 ful! c-a-refully! Steady, Sport, steady, you 
 sir ! See how cat-like they approach ! how 
 they fairly quiver ! how they stretch forward 
 their necks, and bending their forelegs, almost 
 trail their long-haired bellies on the ground. 
 
92 QUAIL. 
 
 Now, see ! could carved marble be more immov- 
 able ? Now, Jack, move forward a little to the 
 right. Now, stand ready and I will flush them. 
 Whir-r-r ! whir-r-r ! Bang ! bang ! Watch where 
 they go, Jack ; mark them down well. There, see ! 
 they settle just the other side of that dead pine 
 beyond the fence. I can go to within a yard of 
 them. Now, load up, Jack ; and do you know, 
 one of the great arts in upland shooting is to 
 mark your birds down? it requires great experi- 
 ence to do it correctly, but by degrees the eye 
 becomes accustomed to note everything by range, 
 and experience teaches one to calculate distance 
 to a nicety. Did you watch those dogs how in- 
 stantly they came to heel and charged as soon as 
 we had shot? See how nervously they await 
 permission to gather the dead ! And here let me 
 say to you and impress upon you the necessity 
 of never relaxing discipline in this respect ; 
 always load before sending your dog to retrieve. 
 And another thing I want to tell you never, 
 under any circumstances, allow your dog to flush 
 a bird ; always flush him yourself. I have seen 
 young sportsmen when a dog was pointing across 
 a ditch, hie him on to get the bird up ; never you 
 do it, unless you want to irretrievably ruin your 
 dog. * * * 
 
QUAIL* 93 
 
 Now then, fetch, dead bird, good dogs ! Can't 
 they understand English ? Don't tell me ! See 
 them bring them in by the wing, without rumpling 
 a feather. Catch them mouthing their birds ! 
 Isn't that perfection of instinct. 
 
 Come along now, I want to show you now that 
 I marked those birds down correctly. I followed 
 their flight with my eye, and saw that it was just 
 in line with that pine stump, and as they darted 
 down, I caught a glance at them just as they 
 settled between yon chimo of hazel bushes and 
 yon stone fence. Come along quickly and we 
 will walk around them and get between them 
 and that piece of thickset swamp, otherwise 
 they'll run in there and it will be a job to get 
 them out, if we head them we would keep them 
 in the open and get every mother's son of them. 
 Now then, hie on, good dogs, so, steady. See 
 how they watch me ! Look at old " Shot," how 
 intelligently he looks Ha ! they've got the scent. 
 Steady, good dogs to-ho ! to-ho ! to-ho ! wh-r, 
 wh-r bang, bang, bang, bang. Mark, John, 
 mark ! See, there they go down in that depres- 
 sion ; they didn't fly far, did they. Are you 
 loaded? all right. Fetch dead birds, good dogs. 
 There's one more. Seek dead, "Sport!" He's 
 got him, sure enough. Well, that's three more ; 
 
94 QUAIL. 
 
 and Jack, you fired behind those birds, and 
 across my face in the bargain. You must never 
 do that, it's a most unsportsman-like thing. 
 When shooting always take the birds that rise 
 on your side and leave the others for your com- 
 panion ; and another thing, never get in advance 
 of your companion, but walk in a line with him, 
 otherwise you run the risk of his shooting you, 
 and this is especially the case when hunting in 
 thick underbrush, when you cannot always see 
 each other ; and when not within sight, you ought 
 by constant signals, to be always aware of your 
 companion's relative position. 
 
 None but a sportsman can understand the 
 enthusiastic delight with which the gunner, after 
 scattering a bevy, marks down and bags bird 
 jfj after bird, until every Iflrd "has b^ep Hlgjjj nor 
 the skill required in marking down single birds, 
 and so handling the dogs as to inevitably lead 
 them to the spot, and after having put them on 
 the scent to keep them down to it till they find, 
 nor the coolness necessarily exerted if the bird 
 gets up under your feet, or just behind you as it 
 often does. 
 
 Snap shooting is often practised in hunting 
 quail, as they, when hard pressed, often take to 
 thickets so dense that when they get up, you 
 
WOODCOCK. 95 
 
 simply hear their whir-r-r, barely catching a 
 glance at them. The November quail is a tough 
 bird and strong of flight and requires a quick 
 eye and a sharp shooting gun. 
 
 WOODCOCK. 
 
 Boys, the agravatingest bird that flies is the 
 woodcock. His comings, his goings, his local 
 habitation can not be calculated upon by any 
 known rule; like the "little joker," you put 
 your eye on him and he ain't there. 
 
 I am at present in a frame of mind peculiarly 
 fit to enlarge upon this subject; indeed, if I had 
 a tenpenny nail handy, I think I could give it 
 the traditionary bite, for here it is the 4th of 
 July, and by a happy train of circumstances the 
 financial associations of New York have sagely 
 decreed that there shall be two holidays this 
 year instead of one. By this very sensible ar- 
 rangement I have been able to compromise with 
 you, giving you one day for fishing, and dedicat- 
 ing the other to the shooting of woodcock so 
 far so good ; but now comes the provoking part 
 of it : three weeks ago the whole country about 
 
96 WOODCOCK. 
 
 here was alive with birds; you couldn't walk 
 along the borders of a swamp but half a dozen 
 would flap up under your nose ; you couldn't go 
 to a spring for a drink but one would cross your 
 line of vision ; now there is not one to be seen. 
 Sportsmen are disgusted, having traveled miles 
 yesterday and never got a feather, the fact of the 
 matter being that the recent rains have flooded 
 the swamps and the birds are scattered all over 
 creation, so I must e'en stay at home. 'Tis an 
 ill wind, however, that blows no one any good, 
 and the unfortunate birds will have a little re- 
 spite, gain strength of wing, and perhaps hatch 
 another brood. 
 
 Of all the outrageously stupid laws ever enacted 
 that decree that woodcock may be shot after 
 the 1st of July is the most absurd, and why it 
 has not been rescinded through the influence of 
 sporting clubs I can not conceive. One might 
 with as much propriety shoot at a quail at this 
 season as at a woodcock. There is one conso- 
 lation, however, which is that a man who shoots 
 woodcock in July pays dear for his whistle, for 
 at that time birds secret themselves during the 
 day in the most impenetrable thickets and 
 marshes, where the atmosphere is made up of a 
 solution of sand-fly and hydrogen, of mosquito 
 
WOODCOCK. 97 
 
 and nitrogen, where the cat-briers interlace 
 themselves and stretch themselves like cobwebs 
 from twig to twig, and where no air can pene- 
 trate; here with a temperature of 100 Fahren- 
 heit the sportsman lunges and plunges each 
 step he makes, penetrating a foot or two in 
 black mud, or catching in a net work of bram- 
 bles, over which he stumbles head over heels, a 
 friendly drapery of ivy armed with prickles as 
 sharp as cambric needles catching him under the 
 throat, while a white oak thorn penetrates the 
 seat of his corduroy breeches. Meanwhile his 
 dog is standing stiff as a poker on a bird in the 
 midst of a morass so treacherous that he is 
 afraid to attempt it. This is about the style of 
 things in July, and ten to one if he does make a 
 bag his birds spoil before he gets home. 
 
 Now, on the contrary, if these birds were left 
 until October they would be fully grown, their 
 numbers increased considerably, and they would 
 then seek the upland, and the labors of the 
 sportsman would be turned into pleasure. 
 
 But we must take things as we find them and 
 pitch into the swamp like others. " Where are 
 they to be found?" Why, everywhere from Can- 
 ada to Louisiana, wherever you see a little 
 streamlet trickling through rich black soil, there 
 
98 WOODCOCK. 
 
 you will find woodcock, along all our river bot- 
 toms, and frequently in dry seasons far out on 
 the meadows in the same localities with the 
 English snipe. You won't find many on Long 
 Island or in East Jersey, as they don't like a 
 sandy soil. Although shot at so constantly in 
 and out of season, they do not diminish materi- 
 ally in numbers from year to year. They make 
 appearance in this part of the country early in 
 the spring in their yearly emigration from the 
 south. They begin laying in May, and it is as- 
 serted hatch two broods, if not three. They lay 
 four or five eggs each time, and they very 
 rapidly arrive at maturity. They moult in July 
 and frequently disappear most unaccountably 
 for weeks, returning quite as mysteriously. 
 Their flight, like the snipe's, is apt to take place 
 on a moonlight night. The woodcock is always 
 in this part of the world hunted with a setter 
 dog, as no pointer could with his short hair and 
 thin skin, not to speak of his aversion to water, 
 penetrate the thickets and morasses; and even 
 the setter, brave as he is, sometimes refuses to 
 go in, and oftentimes comes out covered with 
 blood or overcome by the heat. The sportsman 
 to hunt woodcock successfully should have his 
 dog completely under control and should never 
 
WOODCOCK. 99 
 
 let him range out of sight if lie can avoid it, 
 otherwise he may miss him altogether and leave 
 him standing on a bird. The mode of shooting 
 woodcock is peculiar. Oftentimes you barely 
 catch a glimpse of the bird as he flits past you 
 in the thicket, and you fire, without the possibil- 
 ity of accurate aim, in the direction of his flight. 
 This is called snap shooting and is done so 
 quickly that tbe gun oftentimes doesn't touch 
 the shoulder. Of course there is a good deal of 
 chance about this, although men who do a great 
 deal of this kind of shooting, frequently by intu- 
 ition seemingly, manage to kill a great many 
 birds. Of course one wants a light and short 
 gun, the usual charge being 2| drams powder to 
 an ounce of No. 10 shot. The shooting rig for 
 this sort of work should be a suit of the heaviest 
 linen drill, a light wide-awake hat, a pair of 
 old hole-y light boots, and a pair of old buck- 
 skin gloves ; the last being indispensable to 
 save the hands being torn. 
 
100 THE DOG. 
 
 THE DOG. 
 
 Boys, did you ever see a city man, who had 
 never ridden behind anything but an omnibus 
 horse all his life, come into the country with a 
 wide-awake hat, a bird's-eye cravat and horse- 
 shoe pin, and a cut-away coat? Did you ever 
 see such an individual critically examine a horse, 
 take him by the nose and look at his teeth, pass 
 his hand over his withers and down his legs, 
 and then oracularly give his opinion of the animal, 
 in the language, verbatim, as contained in a 
 "horse" article in the last week's Spirit? 
 
 Well, so it is, boys, often with amateur sports- 
 men in their judgment of the canine race. A 
 biped (looking very much like an animated tooth- 
 pick) swaggers up to you, chirps to your dog 
 (who, taking him in at a glance, gives a premon- 
 itory growl and subsides with his head between 
 his fore-paws), and delivers himself in this wise : 
 "Irish setter, isn't he?" (the dog is an English 
 pointer) ; " looks very much like a strain we had 
 with us in the Peninsula ; they were a little 
 beefy, to be sure, at first, but army fare and hard 
 
THE DOG. 101 
 
 work, when we were not under fire, soon got 
 them into condition." This is about the style of 
 thing that very young gentlemen get off about 
 hunting dogs, of which they know about as much 
 as a cow does of a ruffled shirt ; indeed, many 
 people who do shoot, and shoot well too, talk a 
 monstrous deal of nonsense in this regard. It's 
 not an uncommon thing to hear comments like 
 this : " Fine-looking setter, that of yours ! Should 
 judge him to be Irish. Got a fine double nose, 
 too; nothing like double nose for scent !" Now, 
 this is, of course, the purest and most absolute 
 " ro," for, so far as I can discover, the Irish set- 
 ter never has a double nose, it being in reality 
 not a double nose at all, but a deformity, like the 
 hair-lip in human beings, and a peculiarity of the 
 French breed. Indeed, Youatt asserts that it 
 not only is not an advantage, but that it positively 
 interferes with the acuteness of the scent. 
 
 This ignorance on the part of sportsmen ren- 
 ders them peculiarly liable to be cheated by dog 
 dealers. In our district, within a circuit of five 
 miles say, there are perhaps a hundred so-called 
 hunting dogs, and it is probable that they are 
 held at an average price of $50 each, some being 
 held as high as $250. Now, it is safe to assert 
 that at least two-thirds of these dogs are "curs," 
 
102 THE DOG. 
 
 not worth, the powder to blow them up with ! It 
 is true they may be made to stand on a bird, and 
 perhaps retrieve it, but they are in no way to be 
 depended upon, and after an hour's hunting 
 would be worse than useless ; in fact, any dog 
 may be taught that. You may laugh, but I can 
 cite a case in point. 
 
 Some years ago, Mr. S. whom you know, and 
 who used to shoot a good deal with Judge N. 
 one day, taking a holiday, went out into the fields 
 with his gun and a dog which he had imported, 
 to ask the Judge to go with him and try to pick 
 up a few quail, and see how the new dog worked- 
 The Squire, nothing loathe, started off, and after 
 proceeding a short distance found that a favorite 
 terrier had stealthily followed him. In vain he 
 endeavored to drive him back, and at last gave it 
 up, much, however, to Mr. S.'s annoyance, who 
 remonstrated with him on the impropriety of so 
 doing. The Squire, who had looked over Mr. 
 S.'s dog, and only from deference to his owner 
 had refrained from pronouncing him a cur, being 
 a little irritated, offered to lay a wager that his 
 terrier would point as many birds as Mr. S.'s 
 imported setter. The wager was taken. The 
 shooting ground was in the open on the edge of 
 a meadow, and the dogs were both thrown off 
 
THE DOG. 103 
 
 The terrier set to work artistically, found the 
 first bird, and stood as stiff as a stake and re- 
 trieved him when shot, and pointed and retrieved 
 five birds successively, while the setter found but 
 two. The terrier was a remarkably sharp little 
 customer, had often accompanied the Squire to 
 the fields in his farming operations, with his 
 friend the setter (a famous dog of the Squire's), 
 and had got the hang of the thing, which peculi- 
 arity the Squire, on becoming aware of, had suc- 
 ceeded for his amusement in developing. 
 
 Pigs even are gifted with a remarkably acute 
 scent indeed, necessarily so to enable them to 
 perceive their food (when in a wild state) to a 
 considerable depth under the surface. Some 
 years ago an English sportsman, discovering a 
 sow in his possession to be endowed with unusual 
 instinct, and being aware of the delicacy of scent 
 in swine, conceived the idea of training the sow 
 to point game, and after patient training suc- 
 ceeded, and the pig actually became fond of the 
 sport, and showed manifestations of pleasure 
 when her master appeared, gun in hand. This 
 goes to show that a dog that will point his bird 
 is not necessarily a hunting dog, any more than 
 a parrot that is taught to talk is endowed with 
 human understanding ; and also that in nothing 
 
104 THE DOG. 
 
 is there a greater field for fraud than in buying 
 and selling hunting dogs. A business man, who 
 only shoots a dozen times a year, in buying a 
 dog and witnessing his performances, if he finds 
 and retrieves his bird, is pretty sure to pay the 
 price asked without further trial, although he 
 may be absolutely worthless. 
 
 The only advice that I could volunteer to a 
 young sportsman in the purchase of a dog, would 
 be to buy him of, or through, some sportsman 
 of note, who is thoroughly acquainted with the 
 strain or lineage of the dog, for blood will tell in 
 a dog as well as in a horse, and if a pup is 
 "sired" and "grandsired" by good stock, he is 
 a safe purchase. It's no use taking a pup to a 
 "dog breaker" and asking his advice, for they 
 don't enjoy the reputation of saints, and it's ten 
 to one they tell you that there is no doubt of the 
 purity of the pup's breed, etc., etc., and advise 
 his being put in training. I remember an in- 
 stance of this kind which occurred here not long 
 since. A friend of ours was presented with a 
 " pup." He took it to a breaker who was in 
 ecstacies over him, and it was at once decided to 
 put him in training ; three months afterwards the 
 trainer announced his education complete, and 
 on an appointed day brought " Bang," and a 
 
THE DOG. 105 
 
 DOG or HIS OWN to sliow liis performance in the 
 field. I was invited to assist. We got in among 
 two or three bevies of quail ; the trainer's own 
 dog found, pointed and retrieved beautifully ; 
 the new graduate watched his canine mentor 
 and lay down on his back and kicked, on every 
 occasion that the old dog pointed. The trainer 
 explained it as a peculiarity of a certain strain of 
 dog, but he couldn't make him retrieve, even in 
 a peculiar way, and finally bullied our friend out 
 of $75, training fee ! The dog never had been 
 and never was good for anything. The trainer 
 had simply held him with a check string when 
 in the field and whenever the old dog pointed, 
 he pounded " Bang," until he crouched too, the 
 result being that so soon as a companion found 
 his bird, he, in sheer fright, lay on his back and 
 appealed for mercy. 
 
 My advice to you boys is, if any one ever 
 makes you a present of a pup, train him your- 
 self. The only art is kindness, indeed the exercise 
 of the Christian virtues of patience, forbearance 
 and perseverance. If a dog is thoroughbred, it 
 is the easiest and pleasantest task imaginable, 
 indeed some dogs actually require no training ; 
 so far as finding and pointing go, but these are 
 
 the great exceptions. Now we will suppose some 
 5* 
 
10G THE DOG. 
 
 friend of the family, entirely reliable, sends you 
 a pup; lie has got over his babyhood, distemper, 
 etc., and is at an age when he should be sent to 
 school. You take him out on the lawn, tie a 
 light cord to his collar and let him play about, 
 suddenly you say, loudly and decidedly, charge ! 
 checking him at the same time with the cord, 
 and walking up, put your hand on his back and 
 press him down; he resists, but you are firm, 
 speaking gently and shaking your finger at him. 
 Soon he discovers what you want and that he 
 isn't going to be hurt, and lies quiet ; in a minute 
 or two he wants to resume his gambol, you again 
 press him forcibly down, speaking harshly, and 
 so on for half an hour ; you then caress and feed 
 him. The next day, and the next, you give him 
 a lesson and in a week he will charge. The next 
 thing to teach him is to charge at a distance ; 
 the check string is again resorted to, as long a 
 one as the grounds will admit ; having been kept 
 up a day or two, he will naturally rush off; 
 before he gets to the end of his rope you shout 
 charge and check him severely ; he will instinct- 
 ively come to charge from the effects oi previous 
 lessons, but seeing you at a distance he, yearning 
 for his gallop, will, ten to one, try to get off 
 again ; here great patience must be shown, but 
 
THE DOG. 107 
 
 firmness of purpose and threatening gestures 
 must be put into practice, with an admonitory 
 cut of the dog whip, and this lesson must be 
 continued day after day, and after each lesson 
 the dog caressed and fed. Dogs, like some boys 
 I know, often get ugly and sullen, and to whip 
 them only makes them worse, therefore kindness 
 is by far the best treatment in every case, as no 
 nature can resist it in the end. Supposing after 
 several weeks you have succeeded in teaching 
 your dog to charge under every circumstance, 
 now, then, it is important that he should be 
 taught the absolute necessity of "coming in to 
 heel" when ordered so to do in obedience to the 
 word close, and such obedience can be taught by 
 pursuing the foregoing system. He may now be 
 taught to retrieve ; and a good plan I have found 
 to practice is to let him get very hungry, then, 
 attaching a bone to a cord, to drag it over the 
 grass, and finally hiding it in a clump of bushes. 
 The dog is then let out, and the check cord at- 
 tached ; he, of course, snuffing about, soon strikes 
 scent of the beef, and in a moment has it in his 
 mouth. Youthen call out sharply "fetch;" he 
 looks, but don't understand. You then haul him 
 in, and taking the bone away from him, again 
 hide it, he seeking and again finding it, again 
 
108 THE DOG. 
 
 being ordered to fetch and again hauled in. Here 
 the utmost patience is needed, but before the 
 lesson is over he will probably of his own accord 
 fetch the bone, which he then must be allowed to 
 gnaw, and he must likewise be caressed. He 
 will soon get the hang of this, especially if his 
 hunger is only appeased after obedience. All 
 this will take weeks to accomplish. He must 
 now be taught to give up what he fetches no 
 easy task, but patience will conquer. Being 
 thoroughly broken to fetch a piece of beef or a 
 bird, he must be taught not to mouth or tear it. 
 This is taught by some in this wise : A ball of 
 rags, through which half-a-dozen nails are driven 
 so that the blunted ends obtrude say a quarter of 
 an inch, is saturated with beef drippings, and is 
 hidden in the grass, and the dog told to fetch. 
 He grabs the ball as ravenously as the bone, 
 when, of course, the nails stick in him, and he 
 drops it like a hot potato ; but fetch he must, 
 and finally does, holding it as gingerly as pos- 
 sible. A few dozen repetitions of this, and he 
 will never mouth a bird or anything else. His 
 home education complete, he is taken into the 
 field, held in check by the cord. If he is a good 
 dog and there are birds about, he will strike the 
 scent and finally bring up on a point. Now is a 
 
THE DOG. 109 
 
 critical time ; you should approach steadily, and 
 as you get up to him, if he shows the slightest 
 disposition to run in on the birds, he must be 
 checked violently, and if he again attempts it a 
 few cuts with a dog whip should be given. If you 
 put the bird up and shoot it, the command charge 
 and dose must be given simultaneously and en- 
 forced strictly. You then load up, and utter 
 sharply fetch dead bird. It is best, of course, to be 
 accompanied during the first lessons in the field 
 with a steady, well-trained dog and a companion 
 to manage check rope or to shoot. A few les- 
 sons in the field will thoroughly develop the dog, 
 and he then must be taught to hunt, quarter the 
 field, etc., meanwhile obedient to your every 
 gesture and paying strict attention to the pre- 
 monitory whistle, 
 
 Boys, you once saw Earey ! you saw how he 
 fairly enslaved the savage "Cruiser" by pa- 
 tience and kindness. So you, by exercise of 
 those virtues, can lead and teach a good dog as 
 well and better than any professional breaker. 
 
 The majority of hunting dogs in this country 
 are setters. Their docility, their fondness for 
 water, their natural aptitude for retrieving, their 
 long and thick coating of hair, which serves as 
 an armor against briars and thorns, make them 
 
110 THE DOG. 
 
 far preferable to pointers, who, although pos- 
 sessed of keen scent and peculiarly fitted for 
 hunting over open stubble fields, are compara- 
 tively useless from their dread of water, and 
 their thin delicate coats in the thick under- 
 growth where we shoot most of our game. It 
 seems almost an absurdity to offer the foregoing 
 suggestions as to dog training in such a very 
 general way as I have done, but any very ex- 
 tended or explicit directions would be out of 
 place here, and I can only refer you to very ex- 
 haustive treatises by Herbert, Youatt, Hutchin- 
 son and others. 
 
BOAT SAILING. Ill 
 
 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 BOATING. 
 
 A knowledge of boating is as essential almost 
 to a sportsman as the ability to use his gun, for, 
 as a general thing, in fowl-shooting the gunner 
 reaches his shooting ground across wide bays 
 and lakes, and in fishing, a boat is nearly always 
 an indispensable adjunct to his sport. American 
 boys, as a general thing, can handle an oar or 
 wield a paddle, but very few, comparatively, un- 
 derstand the management of the sailing boat. 
 Hence, I will assume that you know nothing 
 whatever about it, and will commence by 
 quoting that trite saying, " A little knowledge is 
 a dangerous thing," which is in no case better 
 exemplified than in one's ignorantly attempting 
 to handle a boat under sail, for nothing but ex- 
 perience can teach one how to do it. 
 
 It's a difficult matter to attempt even to fa- 
 miliarize a boy with the technicalities of boat 
 sailing; but, nevertheless, it strikes me that in 
 order to convey a clear conception of the mode 
 of propelling a boat by sails, the attempt should 
 be made to give an explanation of the varioiis 
 
112 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 terms used in so doing, and I will endeavor to do 
 it by narrating in detail some of my own early ex- 
 periences in boat sailing. I well remember that 
 when I first undertook to sail a boat which, by 
 the way, was a small bateau that I had rigged 
 with an old table-cloth for a sail, my model 
 being taken from a picture in an old magazine 
 I was completely nonplussed and disgusted to 
 find that I could not make the boat go directly 
 toward any particular spot, if the wind were 
 blowing from that direction, for at that time my 
 ideas of a head loind were exceedingly misty. 
 As soon as my sail was hoisted, my bateau 
 would insist upon going off in another direction 
 from the one which I desired to go, but slid 
 off with the wind, or before what I did not then 
 know was a fair ivind. This was bad enough, 
 but when I wanted to stop her, not then know- 
 ing enough to bring her head round in the 
 direction of the wind, or in nautical parlance to 
 LUFF her up and then stop her way, I went bang 
 at the river's bank, when both captain and mast 
 went overboard together. Thus ended my first 
 day's sailing, for I had to lay her up for repairs. 
 Nothing deterred, however, by my ducking, 
 shipwreck or parental injunction, but enriched 
 with the previous day's experience, I again got 
 
BOAT SAILING. 113 
 
 under way, bearing in mind, however, that just 
 before the collision referred to, as I was nearing 
 the bank, a gruff voice had sung out " luff, you 
 beggar you, luff," so I at once came to the 
 proper appreciation of the euphonious word, 
 and several times repeated the nautical man- 
 oeuvre of coming to with great success. Thus far, 
 therefore, I had learned practically what was a 
 fair wind, what was a head ivind, and how to 
 stop a boat, and the meaning and proper appli- 
 cation of the word luff. * * * At about one 
 mile's distance from my anchorage, precisely 
 in the direction from which the wind blew, or 
 dead to windward, a field sloped down to the wa- 
 ter's edge, and that field was planted with peach 
 trees, and those peach trees were loaded with 
 luscious fruit. The road of this orchard was 
 closely guarded, but the river-front was unforti- 
 fied, and I knew it, and I wanted some of 
 those peaches, but how to get there in my ba- 
 teau I couldn't for the life of me tell; for I 
 found that when I turned the boat's head in 
 that direction, that the wind, blowing directly in 
 front of the sail, almost flapped the mast out 
 of her, but would not fill it. That would never 
 do, so I turned her head a little to one side, 
 when, of course, the sail filled at once and the 
 
114: BOAT SAILING. 
 
 clipper moved off. Instinctively I hauled in the 
 rope fastened to the end of the sail, and headed 
 the boat as near the point of the orchard as she 
 would go without her sails napping, and I found 
 that the more I hauled the rope, the nearer she 
 would head up for the point ; but after going on 
 thus for some time, I found that she must soon 
 strike the bank, and without at all intending it, 
 but while trying to make her keep heading up, 
 the sail suddenly gave a flap and the boat a 
 turn, the sail filling on the other side. Finding 
 that, although partially turned around, she still 
 tended up the river, or toward the point, I let 
 her go on, and on arriving at and trying to edge 
 up the opposite bank, the sail flapped again and 
 around went the boat, and she again filled on the 
 other side; and now to my gratification I saw 
 that I was gaining ground, and became convinced 
 that if I repeated these manoeuvres I should 
 eventually gain my destination. I did not, how- 
 ever, then know that this manoeuvre was nauti- 
 cally styled "beating to windward" and that 
 each time the boat went round that she was 
 tacking. 
 
 My patience and forbearance were finally re- 
 warded, and I gained the orchard, when, having 
 filled my pockets and stomach with peaches, I 
 
BOAT SAILING. 115 
 
 had just shoved off again when I was discovered 
 and an irate man and a villainous-looking dog 
 rushed to the river bank. This time I had a fair 
 wind, but I did not know enough to pay out the 
 sail rope or sheet, but kept it as before, close 
 hauled in, when beating up ; consequently my 
 progress was slow, and I was still within reach 
 of stones and peaches with which the enraged 
 individual aforesaid was keeping up a lively 
 fusilade. At this juncture a rotten peach, better 
 aimed than the others, took me alongside of the 
 head. Didn't I jump ? and in so doing some six 
 feet of the sheet ran through my hand, when 
 simultaneously the boat gave a bound, and in a 
 moment I was out of reach, and had learned by 
 new experience that in going before the wind 
 you must ease off tJie sheet. 
 
 Eejoicing in my success as a navigator, munch- 
 ing my peaches and lazily holding the sheet, on 
 approaching a bend in the river I slightly altered 
 the course in order to get by the point, when all 
 of a sudden I found myself in the river, my 
 peaches afloat and my bateau bottom upward ! 
 Half an hour after, however, found the yacht all 
 right, and me drying myself on the meadow, sol- 
 iloquizing as to the cause of the accident. 
 
 On thinking the matter over, I remembered 
 
116 BOAT SAILINO. 
 
 that the sail was full, and that it was over the 
 right side of the boat, and that just as I altered 
 her direction to round the point, the wind, which 
 had been directly behind me, or astern, blew sud- 
 denly on the right side of my face, and that in a 
 second the sail was forced violently over to the 
 other side of the boat, the jerk capsizing her ; in 
 fact, I had involuntarily performed the manoeuvre 
 of JIBING, and my cogitations led me to the con- 
 clusion that if, when I found it necessary to alter 
 her course and thus bring the wind a little more 
 on the side, I had hauled in the sheet quickly 
 and allowed the sail to shift over to the other 
 side gradually, no accident would have occurred. 
 
 Thus in two days I had become practically 
 acquainted with some vital principles in the art 
 of boat sailing. 
 
 I was, at the time referred to, spending some 
 time in the house of an uncle, a retired naval 
 officer, genus sea-dog, who religiously preserved 
 the reli< s of by -gone days, and consequently I 
 was never at a loss for small ropes or blocks 
 wherewith to rig my bateau, and I soon became 
 ambitious to have a boat rigged after the style 
 of a very pretty schooner, a model of which 
 .graced my uncle's sanctum; and, after several 
 weeks' hard work, I succeeded in getting her 
 
BOAT SAILING. 117 
 
 under jib, foresail and mainsail ; and, better still, 
 cajoled my uncle into being an accomplice, in so 
 much, as to give his advice and assistance un- 
 known to my aunt, who would at once have 
 tabooed the whole affair. The old gentleman, 
 horrified at my ignorance of terms nautical, 
 would sit for hours on the river's bank (at a safe 
 distance from the house), and puffing his cigar, 
 would deliver himself in this wise: "Now, you 
 young monkey, don't you forget that the rope 
 attached to the outer end or clew of the sail 
 is called a sheet; now, for instance, that rope 
 which hauls the jib aft is the jibsheet, and those 
 attached to the clews of the foresail and mainsail 
 are called respectively iheforesheet and mainsheet 
 (lubbers are apt to call the sail itself the sheet). 
 The spar to which the foot of your sail is fas- 
 teened is the BOOM, and the light spar to which 
 the head is made fast is the GAFF. The sides of 
 the sails are called the leaches; the lower and 
 outer corner, the dew; the lower and inner corner, 
 the tack; the bottom of the sail is called the foot; 
 the top is called the head; the upper and inner 
 corner, the throat; the upper and outer corner is 
 the>ea& (the term throat, though thus applied, 
 properly designates the jaws of the GAFF." 
 
 " The halliards, as you know, are the ropes by 
 
118 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 which the sail is hoisted the throat halliards, of 
 course, hoisting the inner part of the sail, while 
 the peak halliards hoist the outer end of the gaff. 
 The rope which is permanent or standing, and 
 leads from the top of the foremast to the end of 
 the bowsprit, is the forestay or jibstay, and the 
 ropes which lead from the mast-head down on 
 either side, and are fastened to the side of the 
 boat, are called backstays; and the rope leading 
 from the mast-head to the end of the boom (to 
 support it) is called the topping-lift." 
 
 All this, and oceans more of the same sort, the 
 old gentleman imparted to me in accents tinged 
 with sympathetic pity, evidently saddened at the 
 conviction that a boy, and that boy his nephew, 
 should have reached the mature age of ten years 
 in such gross and benighted ignorance, which 
 clearly proved the degeneracy of the age. 
 
 As my nautical proclivities developed, I was 
 informed that no one was qualified to handle a, 
 boat who could not furl a sail properly, or, in 
 case of a strong breeze, reef her down, and that 
 it was likewise indispensable to be able to tie a 
 square knot and to splice a rope ; and warming 
 up with the subject, the old gentleman despatched 
 me to his sanctum, intrusting me with the key of 
 a mysterious chest with rope handles, which was 
 
BOAT SAILING. 119 
 
 popularly supposed by the family to contain 
 Spanish dollars and jewels of untold value, cap- 
 tured from pirates on the Spanish main ; hence, 
 the custody of this key was a mark of prime 
 favoritism, and was accompanied by the injunc- 
 tion to " bear a hand, you lubberly young rascal, 
 and fetch me a canvass bag you'll find in the 
 port side, and mind don't you touch anything 
 else." Of course I went off feeling very big and 
 important, and returned bearing a great dirty 
 canvass bag as tenderly as if it had been a new- 
 born babe. The bag on being opened emitted, 
 I must say, a very nasty smell, rancid tallow and 
 tar being the prominent scents ; however, I soon 
 became used to that. I brought out successively 
 the following articles : Balls of spun yarn, sail 
 twine, needles, palms, marling-spike, tin boxes 
 with mixture of tar and grease, pieces of canvass, 
 Manilla rope, marliiig-spikes and fids, which, 
 being duly spread out, I was initiated into their 
 names and uses; and the hours passed in the 
 acquirement of those early lessons in seamanship 
 are among my pleasantest recollections ; and so 
 necessary is it for boys handling boats to under- 
 stand how to tie a few of the simpler knots and 
 put two ends of a rope together, that I have 
 caused to be inserted here the subjoined plate, 
 
120 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 with accompanying instructions, which will doubt- 
 less prove plain enough for you to follow and per- 
 fect yourself therein. 
 
 It would be inappropriate if not impossible to 
 attempt within the contracted limits of this ar- 
 ticle to teach you how to make all the various 
 splices, knots, etc., required in rigging and work- 
 ing a boat, but the plate on the opposite page, 
 and the accompanying directions referring there- 
 to, are well worth your study, as by it you will 
 be enabled by the aid of a piece of Manilla rope 
 and a marling-spike to master the art of putting 
 two ends of a rope together, of making an eye- 
 splice and three knots, a knowledge of which 
 would always be useful to you whether in or out 
 of a boat. 
 
i 
 
 p 
 
 5 pi JB g 
 
 ^ 
 
AN EYE SPLICE, Fig. A. 
 
 Is made by opening the end of a rope and laying the strands 
 (e, /, g) at any distance upon the standing part, forming the 
 collar or eye (a). The end (h), Fig. B, is pushed through the 
 strand next to it (having previously opened it with a marling- 
 spike); the end (/) is taken over the same strand and through 
 the second; and the end (k) through the third, on the other side. 
 
 TO MAKE A BOW-LINE KNOT, Fig. 6. 
 Take the end of a rope (a), Fig. 4, in the right hand, and 
 the standing part (5) in the left, laying the end over the stand- 
 ing part ; with the left hand turn a bight of the standing part 
 over it, Fig. 5 ; lead the end round the standing part through 
 the bight again and it will appear like Fig. 6. 
 
Fig 
 
 TO MAKE A RUNNING BOW-LINE KNOT, Fig. 7. 
 Take the end of a rope, Fig. 6, round the standing yart (b) and 
 through the bight (e) : make the single bow-line knot upon 
 the part (d), and it is done, Fig. 7. 
 
 Fig- 
 
 HITCHING A ROPE, Fig. 8. 
 
 Is performed thus : Pass the end of a rope (b) round the stand- 
 ing- part ; bring it up through the bight, and seize it to the 
 standing part at (d). This is called a Half-hitch. Two of these 
 one above the other, Fig. 8, called a Clove-hitch. 
 
Fig. 9 
 
 TO MAKE AN OVER-HAND KNOT, Fig. 9. 
 
 Pass the end of a rope (a) over the standing part (5) and through 
 the bight above (c). 
 
 TO MAKE A REEF-KNOT, OR SQUARE KNOT. 
 Make an over-hand knot as before directed, Fig. 10, round a 
 yard or spar : bring the end (n) (being the next towards you) 
 over to the left, and (6) to the right, take (a) round (6), draAV 
 them, taut, and it is done, Fig 11. If the ends are crossed 
 the wrong way it is called a Granny-knot. 
 
BOAT SAILING. 125 
 
 " Now, boy, as you can put two ends of a rope 
 together, and have left off making granny knots, 
 and liave fitted your sail with reef points, I'll 
 give you a lesson in reefing. Jump into your 
 boat and stand off twenty or thirty yards." No 
 sooner said than done ; and the commodore wad- 
 dling down to the bank, and making a trumpet 
 of his hand, sings out in a voice only equal to 
 that of Barnum's lion, which had passed through 
 our place a few days previously, " Luff her up 
 close to wind, so ! don't let her come about, you 
 jackanapes ! so ! that's right. Now, then, ease 
 off your jibsheet, haul your foresail to windward, 
 so ! Now, then, haul in your mainsheet, so ! 
 belay that ! Now, you see, SHE'S HOVE TO ; don't 
 forget that." 
 
 KEEPING. 
 
 " Now, then, lower away your peak halliards, 
 so! belay that! Lower away on your throat 
 until the sail settles down as far as the single 
 reef points, so ! that'll do ! belay that ! Now, 
 then, cast off your tack. Take that piece of 
 Manilla rope and make one end fast to the 
 cringle on the after leach of the sail, opposite to 
 the single reef points, taking the other end 
 through the cringle by which the after part of 
 the sail is made fast to the boom, and bring it 
 
126 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 back through the cringle where it was first made 
 fast. Now, then, haul taut and bring the end 
 of the rope down under and up around the boom 
 and through the cringle, again repeating this 
 twice, and then hitch it around its own standing 
 part. Now, then, tie up your single reef points, 
 beginning at the outer ends, bringing them 
 around the foot of the sail and not around the 
 boom; and mind you make square knots, you 
 monkey you ! There, that's right ! Now take 
 that other small piece of rope, and pass it 
 through the inner cringle next the mast, opposite 
 the single reef points, and then through the lower 
 cringle, where it's made fast to the jaws of 
 the boom, and hauling taut, make fast to its 
 standing part. Now you have taken in your 
 single reef, you can hoist your sail. If you want 
 to double-reef your sail, it is better always to 
 take in a single reef first, so that, if the wind 
 moderates, you can turn out one reef at a time." 
 " You are now under single-reefed mainsail. 
 Now, then, I'll teach you how to furl your sail. 
 Lower away your mainsail gradually, and 
 gather it in so as not to wet it; get your gaff 
 snug down on your boom ; haul the slack of your 
 sail over the boom and lay the after leach over 
 the slack, hauling taut from the end of the 
 
BOAT SAILING. 127 
 
 gaff ; and now, then, roll your loose sail snug up 
 to the gaff, but don't roll it around the boom or 
 gaff. Now, then, pass your lashings. There, 
 that'll do, boy ; come ashore and make your boat 
 fast. Now, don't you forget it ever, the port or 
 larboard side is the left side, and the starboard 
 is the right side of a boat ; so when I order you 
 to put your helm hard-a-port, shove the tiller 
 over as far as it will go to the port side, when, 
 if you will look over the stern, you will find that 
 the broad part of the rudder is over on the star- 
 board, and as the vessel goes through the water? 
 the water running past it, it meets this obstacle 
 and pushes the stern over to port, but the bow 
 to starboard; hence the order hard-a-port is 
 given when you want your boat turned to star- 
 beard, or the right hand side, and the order 
 hard-a-starboard'\& given when you want your 
 boat turned to port, or to the left hand side. 
 Sometimes it so happens that you are in a nar- 
 row channel where the tide or current runs 
 swiftly, and you want to drop your boat down- 
 stream without turning, or stern first, so remem- 
 ber that in going astern you must turn your 
 helm in the same direction that you want your 
 boat's head turned. The terms hard-a-port and 
 hard-a-starboard are not used in sailing vessels, 
 
128 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 excepting in going dead before the wind. "When 
 a vessel has the wind ahead, abeam or quarter- 
 ing, if it is desirable to bring her closer to the 
 wind, the order is given to luff, or if she is to be 
 turned more away from the direction of the 
 wind, the order is given to keep away. If you 
 want to "tack," you order the tiller put hard 
 down, or hard-a-lee, which means as far over on 
 the side away from the wind as possible, which 
 will, of course, force her head into the wind ; but 
 if you want to turn her away from the wind as 
 far as possible, you order the tiller put hard up. 
 
 When a vessel is beating to windward, she is 
 said to be on the starboard-tack if the wind 
 blows on her starboard side, and on the port- 
 tack if the wind blows on the port side. 
 
 A boat having a fair wind must give way to a 
 vessel on the wind or beating, or, as it is termed, 
 close-hauled, and boats close-hauled on the star- 
 board-tack keep on their course, while vessels 
 on the port-tack must give way." 
 
 TRIMMING SAILS. 
 
 Nothing but experience, as I have often told 
 you, can teach a boy how to trim his sails, but 
 a hint may assist him in giving him an idea how 
 it should be done why certain sails should be 
 
BOAT SAILING. 129 
 
 hauled aft at one time, and at others given all 
 the sheet they can take. On looking back a 
 page or two, you will observe that when I began 
 to sail a boat I discovered by accident that 
 when I wanted to reach a place that lay in the 
 direction from whence the wind came, I had to 
 haul in my sheets flat, thus bringing the wind 
 on my iveather bow, and I found that unless the 
 sails had been flattened in, the wind could not 
 have got any hold upon them ; but I also dis- 
 covered that every foot that the wind veered in 
 the direction of the stern of the boat, the greater 
 the hold did it take upon the sails and the more 
 the sheets could be eased off. For instance, the 
 wind is North and your boat is heading up nearly 
 Northeast ; this makes a very small angle for 
 the wind to act ; in a little while, however, the 
 wind hauls NNW, which brings it more on the 
 side, and you ease off your sheet. Soon it gets 
 round to West, which brings it abearn, and you 
 ease off still more and finally it goes round SW 
 and you let your sheet run entirely out, the wind 
 being dead astern. 
 
 Thus we see that as we edge off from the wind, 
 or the wind hauls in our favor as the case may 
 be, we gradually pay out sheet, and as we edge 
 up toward the wind, or it hauls ahead, we haul or 
 
 6* 
 
130 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 flatten in the sheets. Full and By is the nautical 
 term applied to the act of beating to windward ; 
 as, although you must keep jour boat % the 
 wind, or as near as possible to it, still you must, 
 in order to make any headway, keep her sails 
 full. To sail near the wind as possible, keeping 
 your sails full at the same time, is a very nice 
 operation in boat sailing, and can only be done 
 by strict watchfulness and attention. Often- 
 times a boat, though duller than her competitor, 
 wins a race through the carefulness in this re- 
 spect of the person steering ; for instance, you 
 are sailing in a regatta, your course lays past a 
 certain point, faster boats than yours have tried 
 to weather it or get past it without making a 
 tack, but have failed and been obliged to make a 
 short tack off shore. You think you can man- 
 age it and thus snatch the prize from the faster 
 boats ; you edge your boat along, the leach of 
 your sail just quivering, but your sail full ; when 
 you get nearly abreast of the point, you give her 
 a good full and then suddenly shove her up into 
 the wind, and by the impetus thus gained she 
 runs a considerable distance right in the wind's 
 eye ; not letting her lose her headway however, 
 you then fill away on her again, and under re- 
 newed impulse you again luff her up into the 
 
BOAT SAILING. 131 
 
 wind, and successfully repeating the manoeuvre 
 several times, you find yourself by the point 
 without the necessity of making a tack, and con- 
 sequently to windward and far in advance of 
 your competitors. 
 
 Putting a boat about on another tack, or go- 
 ing in stays, as it is termed, is a very nice opera- 
 tion, and if done bunglingly occasions great loss 
 of time, as the boat is of course drifting to lee- 
 ward all the time after she loses her way, and 
 as in failing to go around, or missing stays, as it 
 is called, the boat is for the time being uncon- 
 trolable, if in a sea-way her position is perilous, 
 as she may capsize or have a sea break aboard 
 of her. 
 
 TACKING. 
 
 Let us suppose we are beating down a bay 
 and have stood as far over on one tack as is 
 expedient and have to go about. The first thing 
 to be done is to see that the jib-sheet is all clear 
 and ready to let go. We then give her a good 
 full, after which the tiller is turned gradually to 
 leeward, bringing the boat up into the wind, and 
 as soon as the after-leach of the main-sail begins 
 to shake, the helm is put hard down, and the 
 sails are shaking in the wind ; she has still way 
 on her though, and the great thing is not to le(i 
 
132 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 her lose her momentum ; the jib-sheet is then let 
 fly, and if she hangs and does'nt look like going 
 round, the jib is hauled over to windward to 
 help swing her, while the tiller, which was hard 
 down, is now put amidships so as not to be a 
 drag on her ; as soon as her head begins to pay 
 off and the jib begins to fill, the jib-sheet is 
 haul'd flat aft, and the main-boom is swung over, 
 and the tiller put down a bit to meet her and 
 bring her up, "futt and by " again. 
 
 In steering a boat the tiller should never be 
 shoved violently up and down like a pump han- 
 dle, as it interferes materially with the speed of 
 the boat, yawing her all over creation ; if a boat 
 be properly ballasted she requires very little 
 movement of the tiller, and the proper ballasting 
 and trim of a sailing boat is vitally important. 
 If she is too much loaded forward or by the head 
 she would have a tendency to be running up into 
 the wind, which is termed carrying a weather 
 helm ; if, on the contrary, she should be down by 
 the stern, she will have a tendency to turn away 
 from the wind, which is called carrying a lee helm. 
 Indeed, a boat to sail well, should be on an 
 even keel, neither by the head or stern. A 
 convenient ballast for a large boat is fresh wa- 
 ter in very small breakers, or little barrels, hold- 
 
BOAT SAILING. 133 
 
 ing from 5 to 10 gallons, which, carry the ad- 
 vantage of being so bouyant that should the' 
 boat capsize, the water casks will buoy her up, 
 whereas stone or sand ballast would carry her 
 down. 
 
 The art of bringing a boat to her anchorage 
 or to her wharf is a very important thing to learn 
 and should be practised frequently, and may, 
 under certain circumstances, be done under full 
 sail with impunity, provided it is properly done. 
 If the desired point to bring up is dead to wind- 
 ward, keep a good full on her until you think 
 she has momentum enough to fetch, then haul 
 down your jib and shove her up into the wind ; 
 if the anchorage be to leeward, let her go until 
 she is abreast of her mooring, then luff her up 
 into the wind and haul down her jib, when she 
 will soon lose her headway and drift down on 
 her anchorage or to the wharf. If obliged to run 
 in before the wind and there is no room to luff 
 her up into the wind, then, as she approaches, 
 haul down your jib and lower away your main- 
 sail until there is just enough left to carry her in. 
 
 It would be absurd for me here to attempt a 
 disquisition upon boats or to recommend any 
 particular style ; according to my notion, how- 
 
134 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 ever, a little cat-rigged boat, partly decked over, 
 is the safest and handiest small sail-boat that 
 floats, it being the easiest handled and most con- 
 venient ; the mast being stepped in her bow, or 
 "right in the eyes of her," she has but one sail; 
 this sail hoists by halliards, like any other, and 
 the halliards, instead of being made fast to pins 
 at the foot of the mast, are led through small 
 blocks and brought aft and made fast to pins 
 which are fixed in the after thwart or seat, just 
 in front of the steersman, and he thus has com- 
 plete control over her sail and can lower it at 
 pleasure, should the weather be puny, or he can, 
 by throwing off the pin all but a single turn of 
 the throat and peak halliards, and holding the 
 slack in his hand, ease off either the one or the 
 other at pleasure, so that in a second, in case of 
 a sudden squall striking the boat, he can let 
 everything go by the run. Where there is but 
 one man to manage a boat, I should decidedly 
 give the preference to the cat-rig. The handiest 
 little boat for shooting, par excellence, that I 
 know of, or for fishing either, is a boat used ex- 
 tensively in Barnegat Bay, called a sneak boat 
 or box. It is built precisely in the form of an 
 old-fashioned, round-toed shoe, decked over with 
 the exception of a square hatch, just large enough 
 
BOAT SAILING. 185 
 
 for a man to get inside of. This boat is about 
 ten feet long, flat-bottomed, square stern, and 
 draws, when loaded, about five or six inches 
 water ; the floor is flat from the stern about two- 
 thirds forward, and then it slopes upward at a 
 considerable angle, like the sole of a round-toed 
 shoe does, and thus one is enabled to shove its 
 bows over the low mud banks and hide it among 
 the sea-weed while the rest of the boat is afloat. 
 As the bottom slopes upward, the bow slopes 
 downward, making a perfect wedge. As the oc- 
 cupant sits on a little bench, an inch or two 
 above the bottom, just high enough to keep him 
 off the damp planks, he is below the center of 
 gravity, and consequently the little boat, under 
 sail, is as stiff as a church, and, being very often 
 built with a tiny little center-board, it is astonish- 
 ing how they will work to windward. The mast 
 is not over five feet long, and the sail rigged 
 with a sprit, not much larger than a good sized 
 pocket handkerchief, but there being so little 
 resistance it is astonishing how they will bowl 
 along. Being very low forward, it is natural to 
 suppose that they would ship a great deal of 
 water, especially from the peculiar form of the 
 bow, which suggests a strong propensity to run 
 under a heavy sea ; to avoid this, a semi-circular 
 
136 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 piece of heavy canvas is tacked down to the deck 
 just forward of the hatch, and when it is lough 
 a small stick, one end of which fits into an eye 
 on its upper edge and the other end in a small 
 indentation in the deck, stretches and holds this 
 canvas in position, about 18 inches high, making 
 a complete breakwater. The gunner arranges 
 his decoy ducks and geese on the stern and bow 
 of his little "box," and his gun in a little mck 
 alongside him, and hoisting his miniature sail, 
 bears away for his ducking point, perhaps miles 
 away. *#_"** 
 
 It is always convenient, no matter how small 
 your boat, especially if she be a boat kept for 
 shooting or fishing, to have a round hole cut 
 through her forward thwart and a step in her 
 keel, so that when you have the wind any way 
 fair you can step a light mast and make sail on 
 her and a favorite and appropriate rig for this 
 purpose is a sprit sail. This sail is generally very 
 light, and laced to the mast, having no boom 
 or gaff, but is stretched out by means of a pole 
 called a sprit (or spreet), one end of which fits in 
 a loop on the outer and upper corner of the sail 
 and the other end in a loop about half-way down 
 the mast ; this pole crosses the sail diagonally. 
 The sail is easily stowed, being wrapt with the 
 
BOAT SAILING. 137 
 
 sprit pole around the mast, lashed with the sheet 
 and placed fore and aft in the boat, not inter- 
 fering at all with the rowing ; when, the wind 
 coming fair, the mast is lifted up and placed 
 through the hole into- its step, the lashing cast off, 
 the one end of the sprit shoved into the loop at 
 the outer corner of the sail and the other end 
 forced into the loop on the mast ; the sheet is 
 then made fast and she glides off, relieving the 
 labor of rowing. 
 
 Here are some general rules which, in handling 
 a sail-boat, should never be lost sight of, viz : 
 
 1st. Always have your sheets and halliards 
 clear, and ready to let go ; if they are nicely 
 coiled away, they will run swiftly through their 
 blocks, whereas, if not, a slight kink will jam 
 them and a capsize probably be the result. 
 
 2d. In sailing a small boat always hold the 
 sheet in your hand, particularly do not neglect 
 this if it be squally ; of course, it would not be 
 possible so to do if the sheet had the whole drag 
 of the boom, but by taking half a turn around a 
 cleat the pressure is lessened, yet, at the same 
 time, by letting go the end in your hand, the' 
 sheet will at once start. 
 
 3d. Never carry a small anchor at the bow 
 unless it be properly secured, as, should the 
 
 
 
138 BOAT SAILING. 
 
 boat be under headway, she would in that event 
 be brought up all standing, possibly have her 
 mast twisted out of her or be capsized. 
 
 4th. In a breeze of wind never let your atten- 
 tion be called off a single second, but keep a 
 bright look out for squalls to windward, and, as 
 they approach, luff her up and be ready with 
 the sheet, to start it if it puffs too strong. 
 
 5th. Never stow your sails if you can help 
 while wet, but if you can't avoid it, avail your- 
 self of the first dry day to loosen and dry them. 
 
FISHING. 139 
 
 FISHING. 
 
 Boys, I must open this chapter with the frank 
 acknowledgment that I know but little about 
 fishing, as a science, and that I am guiltless of 
 skill in the use of rod-and-reel. It is true that I 
 was somewhat familiarized with the use of the 
 rod at school, but that was in the educational 
 rathef than in the fishing line, nor did its appli- 
 cation beget any desire for a more intimate ac- 
 quaintanceship. I trust that you will not be so 
 disrespectful as to suggest that it is usually con- 
 sidered a stupidity to write about what one 
 knows nothing of, for after all my confession must 
 be taken cum grano satis, for when I say I know 
 nothing of fishing, I refer to fishing with rod- 
 and-reel, having done my share with a hand-line 
 and had many a good day's sport at it too ; this 
 style of fishing, however, is looked upon by ex- 
 perts as an unsportsmanlike and blundering sort 
 of an amusement, but if 
 
 TROLLING FOR BLUEFISH, 
 
 with a stiff breeze of wind blowing and a sea 
 running is not exciting enough for the most en- 
 thusiastic sportsman he must be exigeante and 
 blase indeed. 
 
140 FISHING. 
 
 Would you like try your hand at it and judge 
 for yourself ? Well, so be it. 
 
 Now then, shut your eyes and transport your- 
 selves in imagination to Edgartown, at the ex- 
 treme northern point of Martha's Vineyard, (you 
 can do it in the flesh in five hours from New 
 York to New Bedford, and in a couple of hours 
 more across the Vineyard Sound.) Here we are 
 then, aboard our little fishing craft, a schooner- 
 rigged boat, ready for the fray. There's a stiff 
 breeze blowing, the weather is heavy, and occa- 
 sionally a fog-bank sweeps down, shutting us 
 completely in, but in a moment clearing off again 
 shows us a fleet of small vessels sweeping up and 
 down the beach through an immense shoal of 
 blue-fish, and hauling in as fast as ever they can 
 drop their lines overboard. We round Cape 
 Pogue light, and dash in among the fleet, mean- 
 while getting our lines ready. Those that we use 
 are some twenty fathoms long, made of cotton 
 and hawser laid (which prevents kinking) ; and a 
 long bone squid, to which a stout, sharp hook is 
 fastened, is bent on to the end of it ; this renders 
 the usual nuisance of baiting unnecessary. We 
 now reel out a line over either quarter, and two 
 amidships from the end of a short outrigger, or 
 pole with a small block or pulley at its ex- 
 
FISHING. 141 
 
 tremities, through, which the lines are rove ; thus 
 in towing astern they do not fowl with each 
 other. Once clear of the land we feel the full 
 force of the wind and speed onward, madly dash- 
 ing through a rolling sea, absolutely alive with 
 fish, in company with fifty or sixty small craft' 
 every soul on board of which are hauling in, as if 
 for dear life, their scaly victims. 
 
 It needs a cool hand at the helm to so man- 
 oeuvre his boat as to give its occupants the great- 
 est possible advantage, to avoid mishap from 
 collision, carrying away a spar, or a capsize ; 
 and not the least interesting figure in the picture 
 is the skipper, with knee against the tiller, with 
 hand upon the sheet, with eyes everywhere, ex- 
 horting, encouraging, advising and anathema- 
 tising in a single breath "Bout ship," "Look 
 out for'ard there or you'll be overboard," "Let 
 go that foresheet," "Keep y'r weather eye open 
 or you'll get a ducking" (as a great green fellow 
 comes over the bows and pours in a young 
 Niagara, completely drenching us and half-filling 
 the boat), " Overboard your lines again," 
 " Holy Moses how they pull," " There's a ten- 
 pounder, I'll bet. How's that for high ! "- 
 "You've fouled my line, you lubber you, haul 
 in, can't you ! " " All clear, pay out." This is 
 
142 FISHING. 
 
 about the style of thing for four or five hours 
 consecutively. Meanwhile the boat is one half 
 full of fish and the other half full of water, so we 
 conclude that we have had enough sport, and 
 skipper sings out " Haul in lines," " Unship 
 y'r outriggers." *-**_* And now, let us 
 take a look at our prizes; the skipper says there's 
 about eight hundred weight and that they will 
 average five pounds. They are a sightly fish, as 
 they flounder about, of a deep blue tint, with 
 white under the belly, the head rounding and 
 armed with powerful jaws ; on the back in the 
 wake of the head, a spinous fin, always erect and 
 bristling. Each shoal of blue-fish is said to be 
 the progeny of a single pair a pretty respectable 
 family to provide for, considering they number 
 by thousands ; lucky they don't wear shoes or 
 eat bread and butter. 
 
 But we begin to feel chilly, being dripping 
 wet and ravenously hungry. " Hallo ! skipper, 
 let's shake out the reefs and square away for 
 home." " All right, but I've a notion to try the 
 inlet, its ten miles round the cape and not over 
 two through yon opening." " Jerusalem, skip- 
 per ! you don't dream of shoving her through 
 that broken water do you ? Why the seas are 
 breaking straight across ! This boat will never 
 
FISHING. 143 
 
 do it." " Wall ! I reckon we'll try," says the 
 skipper, " we'll save a couple of hours by it and 
 she'll go through it like a duck, with this breeze 
 a-beam, there's lots of water, it's only the rip 
 that makes it break." " Now then, haul in the 
 head sheets a bit." "So!" "Belay that." Hold 
 on, we may as well shake out them reefs, she'll 
 go in all the easier." " Now then, lay low! " 
 
 As we head in for the opening the seas in- 
 crease in size and crest spitefully : " See that old 
 chap ! he looks as if he were coming for us in 
 good earnest." "By George ! if the wind should 
 die out," mildly suggests a voice at the bottom 
 of the boat ! " If it does we won't go blue-fish- 
 ing very soon again," says another. 'Mid such 
 exclamations we fairly boil along, the seas lifting 
 their ugly noses, white with foam, on every side 
 of us, the skipper meanwhile exhorting us to keep 
 quiet, and to see to it that the sheets are well 
 made fast ; keeping his eye steadily fixed on the 
 channel, and in a few moments luffs up under 
 the lee of the bar, in smooth water. * * * * 
 
 Martha's Vineyard is the Paradise and general 
 rendezvous of fishermen, and immense quantities 
 of sea-bass as well as blue-fish are taken there. 
 Fishing smacks there congregate from every part 
 of the sound, and filling up their wells carry the 
 
144 FISHING. 
 
 live fish to all the little towns along the Sound, 
 even as far south as New York. Another great 
 attraction there is the 
 
 SWORD FISHING. 
 
 These sword-fish are not only immensely large, 
 weighing from 500 to 750 Ibs., but are greatly 
 prized for the table ; their flesh is of a pinkish 
 hue, somewhat resembling the salmon in appear- 
 ance and flavor. The novelty and excitement of 
 the chase attracts great numbers of aspirants 
 each year and all the Vineyard boats are fitted 
 for the pursuit. The fish are sailed upon like 
 the whale, the fisherman standing in the eyes of 
 the boat, with one foot upon an out-rigger, which 
 is firmly fixed and projecting some three feet 
 over the bow ; thus, with harpoon poised, and 
 grasping the forestay to steady himself, he aims 
 for a spot just abaft the neck and lets drive, and 
 as soon as the iron enters the flesh (the line 
 which is attached to it being previously coiled in 
 a tub, the end being passed through its bottom 
 and knotted), he sounds at once, but the tub 
 being hove overboard of course floats, and being 
 towed by the line, always indicates the position 
 of the fish, and as he comes to the surface again 
 the fisherman stands. ready to give him his "coup 
 
FISHING. 145 
 
 de grace," with a lance. The chase is very ex- 
 citing, but I believe the fish are becoming scarce. 
 No-Man' s-Land and Montauk Point are considered 
 the best ground. 
 
 STEIPED BASS FISHING. 
 
 No fish affords greater sport to the enthusi- 
 astic fisherman than the striped-bass ; its pluck, 
 strength and endurance testing the skill and cun- 
 ning of the most accomplished in the gentle art ; 
 abounding, as it does, from Maine to the Capes 
 of the Virginias, off the coasts as well as in the 
 rivers and estuaries, it may be successfully 
 sought almost at our very doors. We, living in 
 New York, may troll for it through the tortuous 
 passes of Hell-gate, or angle for it in Spuyten 
 Duy vil Creek, through the Kill-von-Kuhl, or indeed 
 almost anywhere in our great bay. This beau- 
 tiful fish weighs from J to 40 Ibs., and affords sport 
 proportionately to its weight. It would be dif- 
 ficult to indicate the proper time of tide to pur- 
 sue it, as different localities and different bottoms 
 require various stages of tide, the best bait be- 
 ing, in spring, shrimp ; later, soft shell and 
 shedder crab and soft shell clams. For coast fish- 
 ing, when the fish run from 20 to 30 Ibs., the Men- 
 haden is exclusively used. Old fishermen tell 
 7 
 
146 FISHING. 
 
 me that the best tackle for small bass consists 
 of a light rod about 10 ft. long, moderately stiff, 
 with a German silver reel without stop or check ; 
 the line small, about the size usually used for 
 brook trout, from 400 to 500 ft. long, float of solid 
 cork, which, together with the sinker, should be 
 suited to the depth of water and strength of tide. 
 
 It would be absurd to attempt any suggestions 
 as to how to play your fish or capture him, for a 
 few days' experience with a good fisherman 
 would teach you more than would a volume of 
 written advice. There are men in every com- 
 munity who are passionately fond of this sport, 
 and who are always glad to initiate a beginner 
 for a small daily gratuity. At Hell-gate there are 
 men with bait and gear for trolling always on 
 hand to take one to the best ground, and all 
 along the Sound and indeed the coast, wherever 
 there is fishing, there is sure to be accommoda- 
 tion in the way of boats and bait. 
 
 The great ambition of the angler, however, is to 
 capture the larger sized fish which abound along 
 the coast of the Eastern states and throughout the 
 Sound Newport, Narragansett, Cuttyhunk, the 
 Isle of Shoals and the Vineyard Islands being 
 favorite places of resort for the striped-bass 
 fishermen, and here the fish will run from 25 to 
 
FISHING. 147 
 
 40 Ibs. in weight. Not only the desire to capture 
 the monstrous fish, but the total change from 
 the monotony and drudgery of business, the in- 
 vigorating breeze, the mildness and beauty of the 
 scenery, and the surf surging up upon the rocky 
 headlands, all lend an inexplicable exhilaration 
 to the city man, who, throwing off all care, en- 
 ters with ardor into the enjoyment of the sport 
 with as much coolness and patience, as much 
 skill and dexterity, as in the solution of the knot- 
 iest point in law or in finances ; indeed, nothing 
 can be more soothing to the brain, that for 
 months and months has been worked to its ut- 
 most capacity, than the entire abandon of such 
 a life among such scenery, while the consummate 
 finesse which conquers this monstrous beauty, 
 with the help only of a rod scarce thicker than a 
 riding switch, and with a line but little stouter 
 than a silken thread, affords a sufficient stimu- 
 lant to the latent ambition, which for the time 
 being only is smothered. To the uninitiated it 
 is a matter of astonishment to listen to the bass 
 fisherman of those localities dilate upon the mer- 
 its of his tackle and fishing appliances the care 
 and judgment exercised in the selection of his 
 rod, both as to make and material (each joint being 
 frequently of a different species of wood, the 
 
148 FISHING. 
 
 make and shape of the hooks, their temper and 
 peculiar bend, the material of the line, the pecu- 
 liar twist, whether of braided silk or linen, the 
 form and weight of sinkers and floats, etc., etc. 
 But gradually astonishment yields to a desire to 
 become more intimately acquainted with its in- 
 tricacies and to partake of the delights of a sport 
 which has become invested with the dignity of a 
 science. If I remember rightly, the tackle used 
 at Newport for the capture of the striped-bass 
 consists of a bamboo rod, stout and light, fitted 
 with a reel of superior make, running on jewels, 
 without checks or stops, and running out 300 to 
 400 yards of line; the lines are usually of linen and 
 hawser laid to prevent kinking ; the silken is not 
 used. The hook with the Kinsey-point and 
 sproat-bend is said to be the favorite. The Men- 
 haden, which is the bait used, is often fastened 
 to the hook. 
 
 To those of us who can not spare more than 
 a day at a time from our business, and who are 
 not adepts in the gentle art, 
 
 THE WEAK-FISH 
 
 furnishes no end of diversion, both to those who 
 fish with rod-and-reel and those who confine 
 themselves to the hand-line. 
 
FISHING. 149 
 
 The weak-fish appear in immense numbers, 
 early in May, in the mouths of our rivers, in our 
 bay and estuaries, but is essentially a salt-water 
 fish, and although easily killed he is very gamey, 
 taking the hook savagely. 
 
 We denizens of the great city may fish for 
 them successfully almost anywhere in the lower 
 bay, in the kills between Staten Island and the 
 Jersey shore, or in Prince's Bay at the mouth of 
 the Karitan Kiver ; but they are in no wise con- 
 fined to these localities, as they abound through- 
 out the Vineyard and Long Island Sounds, and at 
 the mouth of the Chesapeake. These fish, arriv- 
 ing in the early spring, remain until the latter 
 part of October, and weigh, late in the fall, as 
 high as ten pounds, although the average would 
 not exceed four pounds. It is a sightly fish, of 
 a grayish hue, with dark spots and yellowish 
 belly, and its flesh is white, mealy and very palat- 
 able. The usual tackle, when fishing with a rod, 
 is a very light, short rod and reel, with a couple 
 of hundred feet of linen line and a light swivel 
 sinker, the hooks of course varying in size with 
 the weight of the fish which happen to be biting 
 at the time. 
 
 The smaller fish I have always found bite best 
 at shrimp, which can be taken in any quantity 
 
150 FISHING. 
 
 along the meadows, at low tide, but the larger 
 fish prefer the shedder and the soft-shell crab 
 and clams. 
 
 It would be quite impossible to designate the 
 best time to fish, so far as the stages of the tide 
 go, as it altogether depends upon the locality. 
 At the mouth of the Raritan for instance, slack- 
 water and the young flood is the best, in other 
 places the second half of the flood, and again in 
 other localities they bite best on the ebb. Early 
 in the season they seem in some places to fre- 
 quent the deeper water of the channel, and later 
 to confine themselves to the flats. The fisher- 
 men of the locality will always, however, give 
 you the most reliable advice on this head. A 
 freshet or a cold easterly storm will drive them 
 out of the mouth of the river. 
 
 THE SHEEPSHEAD 
 
 is a thoroughly game fish and gets its name 
 from the similarity of its jaw to that of a sheep. 
 This fish comes to us in late spring and remains 
 till frost, and ranges, like the wheat-fish, our 
 bays and estuaries from New England to the 
 capes of the Chesapeake. Its weight will aver- 
 age three pounds, but it runs up in the fall of 
 the year to fifteen pounds, and is prized very 
 
FISHING. 151 
 
 highly for the table, always fetching a high 
 price in market ; its food consists of mussels 
 and clams, which its powerful jaws crush with 
 the greatest ease, and consequently their favor- 
 ite resort is where these Crustacea abound, and 
 it is a frequent custom with fishermen, in order 
 to attract them, to dump large quantities of 
 mussels in convenient places. Off Rockaway is 
 a famous place for sheepshead, and very acces- 
 sible by rail from the city, and boats and tackle 
 are always obtainable at a moment's notice. 
 Various places on the Sound too, almost as 
 accessible, and Barnegat Inlet, are much fre- 
 quented by those fond of the sport. 
 
 Anglers seem to prefer a very heavy, short 
 rod, with large reel with four or five hundred 
 feet of line, a heavy sinker, and the leaders suf- 
 ficiently above it as to be entirely clear of it as it 
 grazes the bottom ; the snells should be of wire, 
 and the hooks used are of various patterns, but 
 should be of the best tempered material and 
 very sharp, as the mouth of this fish is exceed- 
 ingly hard. In fishing with the hand-line, the 
 length of which must be determined by the 
 depth of water, although it should be as long as 
 a strong arm can heave it astern of a boat, the 
 sinker should be made fast to its end, and the 
 
152 FISHING. 
 
 leaders with wire snells, at a considerable dis- 
 tance from it and apart, so that they may play 
 freely. 
 
 Shedder crabs are the most attractive bait, and 
 when they cannot be got, the soft-shell clam will 
 allure them. 
 
 THE SEA BASS 
 
 abounds along our entire coast, and is altogether 
 belter known than any other table fish. It is 
 eagerly sought after both by professional and 
 amateur fishermen, and great numbers are taken 
 every year. These fish appear in large shoals 
 off the coast and are to be found in the mouths 
 of our harbors and in our estuaries. They vary 
 in weight from one to seven pounds, according 
 to the season, and are considered by anglers a 
 game fish ; the bait generally used being shrimp, 
 shedder and clams, and they usually bite the 
 best at slack water. These fish hover about 
 sunken wrecks, and the coast fishermen have 
 ranges along shore by which they go with great 
 precision to these grounds and take them in 
 large quantities. Probably no fish affords more 
 sport to the denizens of New York City, excur- 
 sion boats leaving daily for the banks, and fre- 
 quently the passengers come home laden with 
 spoil. 
 
FISHING. 153 
 
 TEOUT FISHING. 
 
 It seems not a little strange to those without 
 the pale of the craft piscatorial, that those 
 brawny, stalwart fishers who brave the pitiless 
 storms of the New England coast angling for 
 striped bass, and wade the icy currents of the 
 Canadian rivers waist deep, in the early spring, 
 in quest of salmon, who, with reefed sail, troll 
 through a rolling sea for blue-fish, should find 
 such exquisite delight in casting a fly into a quiet 
 pool scarce knee-deep, and in bringing therefrom 
 a little trout weighing a pound or so, or more fre- 
 quently only a few ounces ; yet such is the truth 
 nevertheless, and the speckled brook-trout, al- 
 though abounding in almost every brook, rivulet 
 and mountain stream throughout the country, 
 stands preeminent in the estimation of the dis- 
 ciples of Isaac Walton ; its peerless beauty, its 
 coyness, its lightning swiftness, its fastidiousness 
 as to bait, the circumstances under which it is 
 pursued and the locality, leading the angler now 
 amid the most charming landscape, again through 
 the wildest and most magnificent scenery all lend 
 it an inexpressible charm, not to mention the ex- 
 quisite delicacy of the fish which renders it a 
 bonne-bouche to the gourmand or to the grosser 
 
 appetite of the countryman. 
 
 7* 
 
154 FISHING. 
 
 Although, in the pursuit of the trout the very 
 highest appliances of the art are brought into 
 requisition, and the nicest and most discriminating 
 judgment used on the part of the professional 
 angler, still it not unfrequently happens that 
 the bare-legged school boy, with his light hickory 
 pole, his twine line, and bent pin-hook, will draw 
 from their haunts the scaled beauties, when the 
 most tempting flies thrown with the most artistic 
 skill will fail to seduce them. Indeed, I myself 
 remember when a boy passing a few weeks in 
 "Warren Co. in the State of New York, among the 
 chain of small lakes in the upper part of the 
 county, and being chaperoned by a youthful 
 giant to the manor born, who was wont to arm 
 me with a rod cut on the banks of the streams 
 flowing into the lakes, and attaching thereto a 
 common line armed with a hook bought at the 
 village store and baited with angle-worm, fly or 
 grasshopper, and then being bidden to follow 
 him waist-deep in the stream, the inevitable re- 
 sult would be a magnificent string of trout weigh- 
 ing from 1 to 3 Ibs.; all this we looked upon as a 
 matter of course, never dreaming then how en- 
 viable was our success, or the enthusiasm with 
 which it would have been greeted by the lover 
 of the gentle art. 
 
FISHING. 155 
 
 Although trout are taken with numerous grub 
 and angle worms, still frequently all these will 
 fail, and a brilliant colored imitation of a fly will 
 lure them, and herein largely consists the science 
 of the fishermen in judging what style of fly is 
 appropriate to a peculiar state of the atmos- 
 phere or locality. The brightness or dullness 
 of the day, the clearness or otherwise of the 
 water, and the appetite of the fish, have all to be 
 taken into consideration ; indeed, the fisherman 
 can not have too great a variety of flies which, 
 by the way, can be bought in any of our large 
 cities. 
 
 The ambition of all aspiring anglers is to cast 
 a fly well and gracefully of course this requires 
 long practice, and should at first be attempted 
 with a short line, which should be gradually 
 lengthened and the cast should be so made that 
 it should lie straight on the surface of the water, 
 with no slack or bend in it, and it should fall as 
 soft as a feather, and, as the expert whip flicks a 
 fly from off the flank of the leader of his four-in- 
 hand, so should the expert angler be able to lay 
 out his thirty feet of line as deftly and as pre- 
 cisely on the very spot where he wishes it to drop. 
 
 THE PICKEEEL, OE PIKE, 
 
 from what I can learn, is one and the same kind 
 
156 FISHING. 
 
 of fish, although, to the naturalist they may be 
 quite distinct. I fancy, however, they are of one 
 and the same family, and as they inhabit all the 
 fresh water ponds and small lakes of the Northern 
 States, they perhaps are more generally known 
 to our boys than any fish that swim. They are 
 essentially a game fish, and highly prized for 
 the table as well, although, from the fact that 
 they affect sluggish water, and delight to live 
 among lilies and water plants, to me, at least, 
 they have a muddy flavor, which is anything but 
 agreeable. The light hickory pole, and an angle 
 worm bait, in the hands of the wide-awake 
 country lad, is very effective in seducing them 
 from the lily beds, and this fact is often success- 
 fully varied by the substitution of a minnow or 
 small live frog, which appears at times irre- 
 sistible. 
 
 In extensive ponds and small lakes trolling is 
 frequently resorted to, and is a delightful pas- 
 time, and many and various are the rigs adopted. 
 The revolving squids, either of metal or of coun- 
 terfeit minnows or shiners, with a gang of three 
 small hooks, is a favorite device, and as one 
 sculls along gently, the fish rapidly revolving on 
 the surface of the water would seem irresistible 
 to the wary pike. 
 
FISHING. 157 
 
 I must now bring this desultory, and, I fear, 
 not very instructive or satisfactory talk about 
 fish, to a close, by reviving the following article, 
 which I wrote for and was published in the 
 Turf, Field and Farm, under date of July 13, 
 1870, and entitled: 
 
 FISHING IN BAENEGAT BAY. 
 
 EDITOES TUEF, FIELD AND FAEM : Have you, 
 Mr. TUEF, or you, Mr. FIELD, any children? 
 And if you have, do you not occasionally expe- 
 rience a distressing conflict between filial affec- 
 tion on the one hand, and your sporting procliv- 
 ities on the other ? However, it's neither here 
 nor there whether you have or not. I have, and 
 on a very recent occasion, too ; and it was on 
 the first day of July, and in this wise : I had 
 fully determined upon visiting a certain swamp, 
 located within the County of Middlesex, State of 
 New Jersey, armed with my Westly-Bichards, 
 and accompanied by a setter friend, loaned for 
 the occasion, with the intention of doing bodily 
 harm to such woodcock as I had been confi- 
 dently assured by a youthful clown of sporting 
 tendencies, living in the vicinity, then and there 
 existed. Are either you or Mr. FIELD given to 
 summer cock shooting? Have you looked for- 
 
158 FISHING. 
 
 ward to the advent of the glorious Fourth, the 
 natal day of our independence, Hail Columbia, 
 and all the rest of it, simply as indicative of the 
 period when said cocks might be legally slain ? 
 Have you longed for and dreamed of said feast 
 day, as a day to be set apart and sacred to a 
 good woodcock hunt ? Well, I have, if you 
 haven't, and I did on this particular occasion. 
 Said Westly-Bichards was duly inspected, the 
 said setter was never in better condition, never 
 more eager for the fray. Mais, I'hoimne propose 
 et Dieu dispose, as Crapaud would say, for just 
 then, by most diabolical chance, it occurred to 
 my three, aged nine, twelve and fourteen, that 
 last year I had solemnly promised at this festive 
 season to take them for a "big fish" to Barne- 
 gat Bay. 
 
 . Now, my dear TUBF and FIELD, have you ever 
 at any remote period made a promise to your 
 boys which they failed to remember ? 
 
 Have you ever spent a night at the mouth of 
 the Mississippi, or any of the small ports on the 
 Spanish Main? because if you have you can form 
 some idea of the remorseless persistence of the 
 gnat or sand-fly. "Well, they are not easily di- 
 verted where human flesh and blood is con- 
 cerned, but they are nothing to three boys with 
 
FISHING.- 159 
 
 a promised excursion in view, and especially if 
 there be a doubt of its fulfillment. In this in- 
 stance those three little vampires scented danger 
 from afar ; the gun-case moved from its accus- 
 tomed corner, our own kennel occupied by our 
 neighbor's setter, sundry packages by express 
 from Cooper & Pond's, all presaged danger. In 
 vain we discanted upon the delights of a Fourth 
 of July in New Brunswick ; in vain we offered to 
 get up a pic-nic ; in vain we expressed a willing- 
 ness to buy out the whole stock of the village 
 pyrotechnist ; in vain we suggested that the fish- 
 ing would be better next month neither bribery 
 nor corruption, nor diplomacy were of any avail. 
 My life became a burden, my Westly-Eichards 
 went back to the gun-closet, and Sport walked 
 back home a most disgusted and downcast set- 
 ter ; gun-stock fell and fishing tackle rose in the 
 home market, and on the morning of the 1st of 
 July, in the year of grace, we found ourselves 
 my three boys and I at 6:45 A.M., on board the 
 Plymouth Rock. 
 
 "Ain't she gay?" squeaked number three. 
 
 " Bully !" cried the other two in chorus. * * * 
 
 New York Bay has been too thoroughly done 
 
 to try again, but if any one ever saw anything 
 
 lovelier than the Long Island and Staten Island 
 
160 FISHING. 
 
 shores at sunrise of a July morning they have 
 traveled further than I have ; and if said anyone 
 has tasted anything better than the salmon cut- 
 let, filet, omlette au fine herbs, pomnies de terres, 
 a la Maitre d'hotel, or had them better served 
 afloat, then he must have voyaged in the "Flying 
 Dutchman," or some other supernatural craft. 
 Didn't the boys eat. Good heavens! I don't 
 care if Jim Fisk lias swallowed the entire British 
 and Yankee nation in railway matters, he de- 
 serves well of his country for the facilities he 
 has given roasting New Yorkers to get down to 
 the seaside. 
 
 Arrived at Sandy Hook, we seat ourselves in 
 the cars of the New Jersey Southern Railroad 
 
 and in two hours are landed in Tom's Eiver. 
 #**#**#* 
 
 " There's the Zouave ! " shout the boys, as 
 the yacht with pennant flying and mainsail mast- 
 headed is descried at her moorings, and there's 
 Capt. Hat. Gulick, too. Out -go the bags and 
 fishing rods, followed by the boys, and in a mo- 
 ment more they are in her little cabin shifting 
 their land toggery for their sea rig. Up goes the 
 jib, cast off, jib-sheet to windward ! Now she 
 pays off ! Aft come the sheets, and we go flying 
 down the river. In twenty minutes we're at the 
 
FISHING. 161 
 
 moutli, and the wind freshening as we stretch 
 across the bay; we shake her up, and make 
 her saug with a single reef, not thereby, how- 
 ever, in the least diminishing her speed, heading 
 due South, with the ocean on the port hand, 
 only separated from it by a narrow strip of 
 beach, on which the heavy surf ominously 
 crashes, and on our starboard the Jersey main- 
 land. Meanwhile the boys are getting out their 
 trolling lines and squids and here we are close 
 upon the inlet, the great white shaft, known as 
 Barnegat lighthouse, rearing its head from its 
 Southern bank. But there's no time to look at 
 lighthouses, for the eldest boy is tugging might 
 and main, trying to haul in a ten-pound blue 
 fish, which is throwing itself high out of water 
 in its efforts to escape. "I have got one too !" 
 sings out No. 3, " and, by golly, so have I ! " 
 yells No. 2. " Luff her up a bit, Hat, or she 
 will drag them over-board !" " Look out for that 
 hook, you young porcupine !" " Oh, Dad, only 
 look at these two whoppers on my line ! " 
 " Hurrah ! see mine, too ! Such a kettle of 
 fish !" " Mind your helm, there, or she'll jibe !" 
 and then the lines foul. * . * # * That's 
 about the style of thing for about a couple of 
 hours, culminating in a score of big fellows 
 
162 FISHING. 
 
 flopping about the cock-pit lively as crickets. 
 Such yawing and jawing, such tacking and 
 hacking, such jibes and such jibing, such shouts 
 of triumph as a big one would come over the 
 side, such yells of despair as one would fall the 
 wrong side of the gunwale. 
 
 " Now, then, you boys, drop those deck buc- 
 kets over the side and wash her down. Come ! 
 lively's the word ! Hat, you and I will take a 
 pipe. Here, Schuyler, ease off that sheet, and 
 mind you steer her steady ; get the jib-stay on 
 that sand hammock on the port bow, and keep 
 it there, and you'll be all right/' 
 
 "Aye, aye, Sir," sings out the embryo admiral. 
 
 That night we spend at Cox's gunning-house 
 a good bath, a good supper, and well, we 
 dont know about the beds, for we are off to 
 sleep in a jiffy, reeling it off at the rate of fifteen 
 knots, snorting like a shoal of porpoises. 
 
 Next day we try the still fishing. The sheeps- 
 head bite fitfully, the wheat-fish fairly, and the 
 bass so-so ; but together they give us good sport, 
 and as we occasionally change our ground, we 
 have some fine sailing, on and off the wind, and 
 now and then varied by a trial of speed with 
 one of the bay boats. The sheepshead, feeding 
 upon mussels dumped into the bay to attract 
 
FISHING. 163 
 
 them, are a game fish, and afford good sport. 
 The bass are small and plentiful. The wheat- 
 fish abound, average 4 to 6 Ibs., bite spitefully, 
 but soon give in. 
 
 About two o'clock we haul up for Abner 
 Reed's new house on the beach above the inlet, 
 have a header in the surf and then tiffin. Mean- 
 while the wind comes in strong from the south- 
 ard, and as we have to make Bill Chadwick's, 
 ten miles to the northard, to spend Sunday, we 
 all get aboard just as the sun goes down over 
 the Jersey hills. The heavy fog-bank seaward, 
 and the crack of the sea on the beach, presages 
 a stiff south-easter just what we want. The 
 boys, tired out, go below, and Capt. H., wrap- 
 ping his coat about him, goes forward to look 
 out for the channel, and I take the helm. The 
 shades of evening have gathered about us, and 
 the revolving light flashes at quick intervals 
 across our path, and as the little craft feels the 
 heavy night wind rushing in squalls from across 
 the beach, she bends to it and spurts like a race- 
 horse. 
 
 " Keep away, a little, please. Now steady as 
 you go. Steer for that light, so ! Now then, 
 I'll clear away the anchor ! Now then, shake 
 her up ! " 
 
164 FISHING. 
 
 Whir-r-r goes the cable through the hawse - 
 pipe ; the anchor's down, and we know by old 
 Quango's deep bark that we are at our desti- 
 nation. 
 
 " How are you? " " Where do you hail from ? " 
 Here Zeph got the wheelbarrow and took up the 
 dunnage. " Turn out, you boys ! now then off to 
 bed, you young monkeys ! " Getting rid of the 
 small fry, we adjourn to Billy's quarters, where, 
 with a glass of approved tipple and a Principe 
 segar, we listen to Billy's latest wrecking news? 
 for be it known Billy is high cockelorum on 
 Squam Beach among the "wrackers," and has 
 performed more feats in the life and ship-saving 
 line than the whole lot together. His station- 
 house is a model, his boats are always the first 
 in the sea, and it is confidently asserted that he 
 can smell a "wrack" twenty miles off. His last 
 exploits were taking the passengers on a pitchy 
 dark night and over a boiling surf from the 
 steamer " Circassian," within an hour from the 
 time she struck, and in saving the lives of the 
 mate and cook of the "Scribner," after she went 
 to pieces, with a volunteer crew, when the at- 
 tempt seemed certain death ; " but we couldn't 
 let the poor devils drown before our eyes you 
 know." When we first knew Billy, half a score 
 
MSHING. 165 
 
 of years ago, his house was but a fishing hut, but 
 for twenty years before that it was frequented by 
 New York sportsmen of the old school Gilbert 
 Davis, the Stuarts, the Thornes, the Livingstons 
 and a host of others, who regularly went down 
 in Summer for snipe and in the Fall and Spring 
 for ducks and geese. Since then, however, the 
 fishing hut has been converted into a large and 
 stately building, and Billy dispenses his hospi- 
 tality the year round ; in March come the ducks 
 and geese, in June the fishing, in July the end- 
 less variety of snipe, marlin, doewitches, yellow 
 legs, golden plover. 
 
 Billy's long association with such people 
 as above mentioned life-long, one may say 
 has instilled a certain element of refine- 
 ment into his character, which, with a highly 
 original turn of mind, makes him a most amusing 
 companion. Sunday morning finds the juveniles 
 in the surf, which does not diminish their ap- 
 petite for baked blue-fish and eheepshead, after 
 which the station-house, with its life-saving ap- 
 paratus, is inspected, more gunning and wreck- 
 ing yarns, a one o'clock dinner, a jolly good nap, 
 and an hour or two on the balconies, watching 
 the coasters working up and down the shores, 
 and then to bed ; how sleepy sea air makes one. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
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