138 The Winning of the West 



clumsy, and ill-balanced, but exceedingly accurate. 

 It was very heavy, and when upright, reached to the 

 chin of a tall man ; for the barrel of thick, soft iron, 

 was four feet in length, while the stock was short, 

 and the butt scooped out. Sometimes it was plain, 

 sometimes ornamented. It was generally bored out 

 or, as the expression then was, "sawed out" to 

 carry a ball of seventy, more rarely of thirty or 

 forty, to the pound; and was usually of backwoods 

 manufacture. 28 The marksman almost always fired 

 from a rest, and rarely at a very long range; and 

 the shooting was marvelously accurate. 29 



In the backwoods there was very little money; 

 barter was the common form of exchange, and pel- 

 tries were often used as a circulating medium, a 

 beaver, otter, fisher, dressed buckskin or large bear- 

 skin being reckoned as equal to two foxes or wild- 

 cats, four coons, or eight minks. 30 A young man 

 inherited nothing from his father but his strong 

 frame and eager heart; but before him lay a whole 

 continent wherein to pitch his farm, and he felt ready 

 to marry as soon as he became of age, even though 

 he had nothing but his clothes, his horses, his axe, 



28 The above is the description of one of Boone's rifles, now 

 in the possession of Col. Durrett. According to the inscrip- 

 tion on the barrel it was made at Louisville (Ky.), in 1782, 

 by M. Humble. It is perfectly plain ; whereas one of Floyd's 

 rifles, which I have also seen, is much more highly finished, 

 and with some ornamentation. 



29 For the opinion of a foreign military observer on the 

 phenomenal accuracy of backwoods marksmanship, see Gen- 

 eral Victor Collot's "Voyage en Ame"rique," p. 242. 



30 MS. copy of Matthew Clarkson's Journal in 1766. 



