64 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND. BREECH-LOADERS. 
kept for sale at our principal metropolitan shops, 
and their mechanism is so simple that any accident 
to it can be repaired ; but as they are not in general 
demand, really fine articles are difficult to find, and 
had better be purchased specially on the other side. 
This can be done by the party himself, by sending 
to any European maker the length from the fore- 
most trigger to the heel-plate, and the drop from 
the line of the barrels to the cheek-piece of the 
stock—that exist in his present gun, and which he 
wishes to retain. Or any of our dealers will take 
the ineasure of his gun, and import him a breech- 
_loader that will “‘ come up” like the old gun he has 
handled for years, 
Much space has been devoted to the breech-load- 
er, for the reason that the writer, while recognising 
its adaptability to general use, has considered it 
specially advantageous for the pursuit of the game 
of which this work particularly treats; that it has 
defects is not denied, but these are vastly overborne 
by its advantages. . Prejudice is strong ; for twenty 
years the Lefaucheux has been in common _ use 
among the French, who had satisfied themselves of 
its superiority ; and it required that time for an in- 
vention so simple and easy to test, to cross the nar- 
row channel between. the continent and England. 
Americans are always ready to try a new discovery 
and judge of its advantages by their own experience ; 
so that it is not probable that the breech-loader will be 
as long in crossing the “ broad Atlantic,” and locat- 
ing itself securely on our shores. 
