SHOOTING ACCIDENT. . 155 



tible for a person to place in competition with personal se- 

 curity and sporting comfort. 



When a gun begins to exhibit symptoms of having done 

 its work, the sooner a man discards it the better. An injured 

 barrel, or enfeebled lock, may prove fatal to the owner 

 or his associates. Accidents every day occur, and very 

 lamentable consequences arise from a culpable neglect, in 

 retaining arms that should be declared unserviceable, and of 

 course disused. 



I had once a favourite gun, which, from constant wear and 

 tear, exhibited unequivocal weakness in the lock, and which I 

 had been earnestly recommended by a veteran sportsman to 

 discard. On a cold and rainy day I was with my friend, 



O'M , shooting woodcocks in the heath, and having sprung 



several, which, from the severity of the weather, were as wild as 

 hawks, we marked them into a ravine, and determined to tie up 

 the dogs, and endeavour to steal upon them. To keep my gun 

 dry, I placed it under the skirt of my jacket, with the muzzle 

 pointing downwards. My companion and our attendant were 

 busy coupling the dogs, when the gun exploded, and the 



charge passed between O'M 's bosom and the back of a 



dog he was in the act of securing, buried itself at the foot of 

 the keeper, covering him with mud and gravel. From the 

 close manner in which we were all grouped, how the shot 

 could have entered the ground, without killing men or dogs, 

 or both, was miraculous. I was desperately frightened, and 

 from that moment forswore, for ever, the use of weakened locks 

 and attenuated barrels. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



Bad roads Native horses Carins Bridge of Ballyveeney Our beat 

 Midday on the Moors Hints to grouse-shooters Finding game Wild 

 scenery The ruined chapel The well Act of penance Storm in the 

 mountains The deserted burying-place Our return The Colonel's 

 method of rabbit-shooting A disappointment. 



I VERILY believe that no people upon earth are more easily 

 satisfied in roads, than the natives in Ballyveeney. A narrow 

 Btrip of rough gravel along the sea-beach a mountain water- 

 course, tolerably disencumbered of its rocks, or practicable 



