SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 287 
loaded barrel, and in case the other charge should 
go off you would lose the end of your thumb, perhaps, 
but save most of your fingers. | 
From the foregoing rules, which apply mainly to 
muzzle-loaders, it will be seen how much safer are 
breech-loaders ; with them the entire charge can be 
withdrawn on entering a house or getting into a 
wagon, and there is absolutely no danger to fingers 
or thumb in the process of loading. And in carrying 
the weapon on long tramps in the woods, where it 
is frequently removed from boat to shoulder, from 
shoulder to boat, and from wagen to case, and when 
it has to be ready at any instant, with the muzzle- 
loader the only possible precaution is to leave the 
nipples without caps, which are to be carried in the 
vest pocket, and must be removed after every vain 
alarm; while with the breech-loader, the charge 
itself is not inserted till needed. 
With these few suggestions, which are applicable 
not merely to the kinds of sport treated of in this 
volume, but to every species of shooting, we leave 
the young sportsman to his own resources and to the 
knowledge that he will acquire in the field, hoping 
that he may find something in them that will aid him 
to kill reasonably often the game he points at, and 
to avoid the dreadful misfortune of injuring a friend 
or companion. | 
