12 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



an explorer it is useful in a hundred ways besides those for 

 which it is specially intended. 



FIEEAKMS. The gun question is a good deal like the wife 

 question every man prefers to choose for himself, and advice 

 is chiefly superfluous. Nevertheless, to those who have as yet 

 no preferences, I will briefly state mine, and the reasons for 

 them. 



If I could have but one weapon, I should choose the May- 

 iiard rifle, calibre 40, with extra long cartridge, and a No. 12 

 shot-barrel fitting to the same stock, and interchangeable in 

 less than fifteen seconds of time. The rifle is light and handy ; 

 it hits hard, and is as true as steel ever gets to be. It will hit 

 every time precisely where you hold it. Its construction is so 

 simple it seldom breaks or gets out of order, the brass shells 

 never wear out, and when loaded are about as impervious to 

 water as marine torpedoes. Should you go under water rifle, 

 cartridges, and all you have only to " bob up serenely," and go 

 on firing as if nothing had happened. 



By the addition of a shot-barrel, at a very slight expense, 

 you have, in reality, two good breech-loading weapons that will 

 serve you well for general purposes. 



For ordinary large gam 3 I also prefer the Maynard rifle, but 

 of a heavier calibre than the above. Calibre 45 is the best size, 

 taking the U. M. C. Co.'s Bullard cartridges loaded with 85 

 grains of powder and 295 grains of lead. These with the May- 

 nard make a beautiful combination. It carries point-blank up 

 to 170 yards, if not even 200 ; the ball has great accuracy and 

 penetration, with a very low trajectory, and very little recoil. 

 A heavier bullet means a hearty kick and loss of accuracy, and 

 one of 500 grains of lead means occasional blood at your end 

 of the gun, and a black and blue shoulder. 



For such great beasts as the elephant, rhinoceros, and hip- 

 popotamus, the choice must lie between a double 8-bore rifle, 

 and the No. 8 smooth-bore. For my part, I would rather hunt 

 my elephants with such a gun as I used on them in India, a No. 

 8 smooth-bore, double-barrelled, which, though weighing less 

 than 10 pounds, never kicked seriously, even with enough pow- 

 der (6 drachms) to send a zinc bullet through an elephant's 

 skull and brain, and out on the other side. With such a weapon 



