58 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
muzzle, and the empty case torn away—an opera- 
tion implying neither danger nor difficulty. It is 
desirable to pour the shot out at the muzzle, lest a 
pellet lodge under the breech-end of the gun and 
interfere with its operation. 
“The rapidity with which a succession of shots 
may be made is urged as one of the chief recom- 
mendations of the breech-loader; but rapidity of 
firing is seldom desired, and the barrels may become 
heated to danger. The sportsman’s every-day suc- 
cess frequently depends on the range of bis gun, but 
seldom on the loading and firing of it.” 
The Dead Shot is an English book; and in Eng- 
land there are no rail or bay-snipe; the author, 
therefore, has never whistled a flock of marble- 
winged willet or golden-brown marlin back, time 
after time, to the fatal stand, and delivered repeated 
discharges into their thinning ranks. But ducks 
abound there; and for any person who has been 
present at the early morning or late evening flight, 
and has seen and heard the rush of wings innume- 
rable, when a dozen guns and men to load them 
would hardly have been enough, to say that “‘ rapi- 
dity of firing is seldom desirable,” is marvellous in- 
deed. The italicized portion of the last objection 
further implies that Dead Shot has never used a 
breech-loader; for, while in the muzzle-loader the 
heat of repeated discharges may be dangerous, in a 
breech-loader it cannot, as paper intervenes between 
the barrel and the powder. The writer has fired 
his breech-loader until it was so hot he could not 
bear his hand on it. 
