366 



The Avicrican A^isrlcr. 



and reallv second rate Birmingham gim 

 for perhaps $20, and then has had the 

 lamentable vanity and folly to cause it 

 to be engraved "Manton." 



All this, however, is secondary to 

 the matter of which I have spoken 

 heretofore, and is easily remedied or 

 avoided by those who have a fancy for 

 any particular London house; with the 

 advantage of being able to send your 

 own instructions as to weight, length, 

 calibre, bend of stock, and the like; 

 and, in this case, even the possibility 

 of fraud may be avoided, by opening a 

 secret correspondence with the London 

 or provincial house. 



For the rest I have the greatest 

 possible doubt whether any genuine 

 ncxv London gun by a really first-class 

 maker was ever imported — except to 

 especial, order for private use — by any 

 hardware concern in the United States ; 

 and very few gunmakers for general 

 sale, the demand not in fact justifying 

 the order. 



Again, second-rate guns by first-rate 

 makers rarely or never fall into the 

 hands of hardware men ; as the persons 

 who dispose of such things — gentlemen, 

 for the most part, in reduced circum- 

 stances, or travelers in difficulty — are 

 apt to take them to the gun-maker, who 

 is best able to know their value and 

 likely to give a fair price for them ; 

 rather than to the hardware man who 

 is not likely to know, and quite certain 



not to admit their value. 



* * * * * * 



In illustration, I will relate an inci- 

 dent which I saw myself, while 

 shooting at Pine Brook, many years 

 ago; and which made a considerable 

 impression on my mind, as it was the 

 first gun I had ever seen burst, having 

 shot little at that time, but with persons 

 who used first-rate weapons. 



I was trying a setter dog on the first 

 day of quail shooting, with a clever 

 dog-breeder, Dilks by name, who is 

 since dead, poor fellow. He was using 

 a tolerable nice little Birmingham 

 gun, worth, I suppose, some seven or 

 eight potmds sterling, perhaps ten, of 

 Damascus twist. The dog pointed at 

 a long fallen tree with a good deal of 

 grass and brushwood around it — the 

 tree lying diagonally on the ground 

 between us, so that I stood some ten 

 or twelve feet in advance, and about as 

 many yards to the right of him. A 

 bevy rose, only one bird crossing me 

 to the right which I shot, hearing his 

 report to my left almost simultaneously, 

 and then a fearful scream — "Oh, my 

 God! Mr. Forester, you have shot 

 me!" 



I started round and saw him wheel- 

 ing to and fro, wringing his hand, 

 which was streaming with blood, in 

 evident agony. I of course knew that 

 it was impossible that I could have 

 shot him, having fired in a directly 

 opposite direction, but until I got up 

 to him and saw that both his hands 

 were badly scorched and the right fear- 

 fully mangled, I could not conceive 

 what had happened. 



After getting assistance and remov- 

 ing him to a neighboring cottage, we 

 instituted a search for the gun, of 

 which we found the barrel, presenting 

 the most singular appearance I ever 

 beheld. 



The upper rib, or patent elevation, 

 was curled upwards in a perfectly 

 regular curve, from within about three 

 inches of the sight to the break-off; 

 from the same point to the breach, 

 which was blown to atoms, the right 

 barrel, in which the explosion would 

 seem to have originated, was broken 

 as short off as if it had lopped with a 



