MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 29 
original quick spring and sharp click, will become 
dull and weak, till they will scarcely discharge the 
cap; and the stock, warping with the weather, will 
exhibit yawning fissures between itself and the iron _ 
lock-plates or false breech. 
In lightness, however, is the great superiority of 
the highly wrought implement; and in hard tramp- 
ing through a dense swamp of a hot July day, 
or deep wading in a soft snipe-meadow, or in a 
wearisome trudge over hill and dale after Novem- 
ber quail, a pound will make itself felt in the addi- 
tional weight of the fowling-piece, and not only so, 
but a light gun can be handled more readily. In 
open shooting, especially for the wild fowl of our 
bays and coasts, mere weight is a positive advan- 
tage ; but in the tangled thickets, where birds flash 
out of sight like gleams of party-colored light, and 
the instantaneous use of the piece can alone secure 
success, a light gun is an absolute necessity. 
Moreover, on certain occasions, when the barrels 
are exposed to an extraordinary strain, when the 
piece built for light charges and upland shooting is 
used temporarily upon the larger game of the coasts 
or woods, and the two and a half drachms of powder 
and ounce of fine shot are replaced by a dozen buck- 
shot, or an ounce and a half of No. 3 driven by five 
drachms of powder—then it is pleasant to feel that 
the iron is of the utmost possible tenacity and the 
workmanship in every way faultless. 
A learned dissertation on the science of gun- 
nery is neither appropriate to the occasion nor 
