250 



DINGED GUN BARRELS. 



stocks and thin barrels in use at the present day for 

 sporting weapons ; and point out the folly of carrying 

 such a weapon, day after day, on horseback, in a wild 

 country far from gunmakers' shops, so lightly built as 

 to get the stock easily broken and the barrels seriously 

 dented by any ordinary fall. 



We can only say, we have been thrown from horses 

 again and again, with our gun too, without injury to 

 the weapon, where it was sufficiently stoutly built ; * 

 a falling horse has frequently thrown ourselves and 

 our gun for yards in this way, and yet nothing worse 

 has happened than a severe shaking. Could this, we 

 ask, be done with impunity with lighter weapons such 

 as we have alluded to? 



We here feel that to a certain extent we owe an 

 apology to some at least of our readers, on account 

 of the it is to be feared somewhat prolix and technical 

 nature of many of the foregoing details; we must 

 however very respectfully point out that in nearly all 

 works on travel and sporting, the authors are obsti- 

 nately silent with regard to such matters, as if they 

 were things of too trivial importance to merit notice ; 

 but with this opinion we can by no means agree, and 

 we have therefore ventured to strike out a new line for 

 ourselves, in giving such explanations upon the various 

 points as seemed to us desirable to commit to paper. 



Success, both in civil and military life, but above 

 all in the life of a traveller, is most often attained by 

 careful attention to minute details. 



We will however now suppose all preliminaries ad- 



* Our guns were specially built to order for rough work, and are 

 still, after years of hard service in every sort of climate, practically as 

 good as ever. 



