The Open Air 



shots, as at a hare put out a good way ahead by 

 the dog. 



For everything but the multiplication of slaughter 

 I liked the single best; I had more of the sense of 

 woodcraft with it. When we consider how helpless 

 a partridge is, for instance, before the fierce blow of 

 shot, it does seem fairer that the gunner should have 

 but one chance at the bird. Partridges at least might 

 be kept for single-barrels: great bags of partridges 

 never seemed to be quite right. Somehow it seems 

 to me that to take so much advantage as the double- 

 barrel confers is not altogether in the spirit of sport. 

 The double-barrel gives no " law." At least to those 

 who love the fields, the streams, and woods for their 

 own sake, the single-barrel will fill the bag sufficiently, 

 and will permit them to enjoy something of the zest 

 men knew before the invention of weapons not 

 only of precision but of repetition: inventions that 

 rendered them too absolute masters of the situation. 

 A single-barrel will soon make a sportsman the keenest 

 of shots. The gun itself can be built to an exquisite 

 perfection lightness, handiness, workmanship, and 

 performance of the very best. It is said that you can 

 change from a single-barrel shot-gun to a sporting 

 rifle and shoot with the rifle almost at once; while 

 many who have been used to the slap-dash double 

 cannot do anything for some time with a rifle. More 

 than one African explorer has found his single-barrel 

 smooth-bore the most useful of all the pieces in his 

 battery; though, of course, of much larger calibre 

 than required in our fields. 



136 



