* Accidental Discharge of Fire- Arms. 319 



not only to the sportsman himself, but to his friends, parents, 

 relations, and guardians at home. No man of ordinary feel- 

 ing can be perfectly at ease, surrounded by his friends, with a 

 loaded gun in his hand, leaping walls, crossing ditches, brush- 

 ing through thickets, underwood, and hedges, when, all the 

 while, the life of his friends is within the reach of a mortal 

 weapon, and the danger of that weapon guarded against only 

 by the fallaciousness of memory ; and the risk increased ten- 

 fold by the eagerness of pursuit, and the suspension of thought 

 necessarily occasioned by a species of amusement, which, more 

 than any other, lays caution asleep, and occasions that flutter 

 and hurry of spirits, from which such fatal accidents general- 

 ly spring. Many a melancholy fact attests the truth of this 

 remark. Even the most cautious man living, in the eagerness 

 of pursuit, and the hurry of the moment, is sometimes off his 

 guard; and, with the young and inexperienced sportsman, 

 this is the case to an extent, which those accustomed to such 

 pursuits only can know. Now, this gun will tend most effec- 

 tually to allay all anxiety arising from such causes, and thus 

 put the sportsman in the most favourable state, both for en- 

 joying his amusement, and doing execution ; as coolness and 

 ease of mind are essentially necessary to do so with success. 



The fourth advantage which this gun possesses over the or- 

 dinary gun is the safety which one of the modes of it gives to 

 the left hand, in case the gun should burst. All good writers 

 on the subject of shooting strongly recommend the sportsman 

 to press the gun to his shoulder with the left hand close upon 

 the forepart of the bow of the guard. Notwithstanding, this 

 caution and advice are frequently neglected, and the lacera- 

 tion or loss of many a left hand, by the bursting of the barrel, 

 has taught the sportsman the folly of doing so. With the or- 

 dinary gun, indeed, a man may fire with his left hand close to 

 the guard, and thus preserve it : with one of the modes, on 

 which this is constructed, he must do so, for there the safety- 

 spring is placed, and until it is touched, the locks are immove- 

 able. 



Both on this point, and on the danger connected with the 

 use of the ordinary gun, the writer begs leave to quote an au- 

 thority, which will not be disputed. 



