CARRYING GUNS ON HORSEBACK. 249 



question then to be solved for travellers is, how to 

 carry the ordinary sporting rifle or gun with the least 

 inconvenience and the greatest amount of safety. We 

 shall however merely touch upon what seem to us the 

 essential points in these pages. 



There can be no doubt that by long practice guns 

 can be carried, balanced across the front of the saddle 

 in the way usually done by American plainsmen, and so 

 taken along under every kind of circumstance, except 

 among heavy bush; but the plan is open to many 

 objections, and we believe that on the whole the least 

 objectionable way to do it is by the Namaqua method, 

 advised by Mr. Francis Galton, who gives a woodcut 

 of it in his book, which so fully explains the whole 

 thing that comment would be needless. * 



For ourselves we can only say that we have carried 

 our gun in this Avay over literally thousands of miles 

 of ground, under all sorts of circumstances, without a 

 single accident: the stock rested in the leathern case, 

 and all our weapons were fitted with slings like 

 military rifles ; the sling hung loose and enabled the 

 right arm to be passed through it, and thus the gun 

 was carried without trouble, when not riding at speed. 

 When it became necessary to gallop the gun was 

 lifted out and carried in the hand; then, in case of a 

 fall, one was not separated from one's gun an import- 

 ant consideration; and besides, one never gallops 

 except on an emergency, when the gun is mostly wanted 

 for immediate use. 



We must however, before closing this subject just 

 call our readers' attention to the light-handled gun- 



* See his Art of Travel, and method of carrying guns on horseback, 

 published 1872, 5th edition, pp. 2412. 



