MISCELLANEOUS HINTS. 115 



ance, one uses F.F.G., very fine, and the other 

 No. 1, exceedingly coarse. Neither can be per- 

 suaded to use anything different, and both kill, 

 it seems to me, equally far. For my own part, 

 1 am not so particular concerning the size of 

 grain, if it is only uniform and even ; but where 

 1 commence the season's shooting with a certain 

 size, I dislike to change to another. F.F.G. is 

 certainly fine enough for any one, and F. F.F.G. 

 unfit for use in a shot-gun. 



For cleanness, strength, and evenness of grain, 

 no powder can, in my opinion, excel that manu- 

 factured by the Oriental Company, of Boston. I 

 have used many kegs of various kinds, and pre- 

 fer this to all others. When 1 finished shooting, 

 last spring, having been using Oriental powder, 

 though my gun had not been cleaned for nearly 

 three weeks, and had been fired almost every 

 day, and on several days over one hundred times, 

 it was scarcely perceptibly foul, and might, to all 

 appearances, have been fired as many times more 

 without detriment to its shooting or inconvenience 

 in loading. The strength was equally extraordi- 

 nary. My partner (who probably has killed as 

 many ducks as almost any man in the West) 

 used to remark almost daily : " This is the best 



