50 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



perhaps to comprehend, the materials and mechanism of a 

 first-rate gun ; although they may be perfectly capable of 

 deciding on the quality of the gun when manufactured. 

 If I should succeed in explaining these matters correctly, 

 it is still very certain that the best of such explanations 

 convey but a limited degree of information to readers, and 

 necessarily fail of enabling them to judge for themselves. 

 I know few cases in which the old saying, " that a little 

 knowledge is a dangerous thing," is more justly evinced 

 than this. A little knowledge will probably suffice to 

 render the possessor of it satisfied of his own ability to 

 choose for himself; and, rejecting the aid of experience, he 

 will probably get cheated for his pains. 



It is, in fact, a very difficult task for any person, from 

 inspection, to detect with absolute certainty the nature of 

 the metal of which the barrels are composed. In old 

 times horseshoe-nails, wrought into wire or ribbon form, 

 and welded together, were the basis of what were then 

 the best barrels, known as stub-twist. The use of horse- 

 nails has latterly decreased, owing to the deterioration of 

 the iron used in their formation ; and old carriage springs 

 of wrought steel, mixed with "VVednesbury iron, which is 

 generally used and known in the trade as stub-iron, are 

 now principally adopted for the manufacture of the best 

 ordinary twisted barrels. " Gunmakers themselves," says 

 an accurate and able English writer on field-sports, Stoue- 

 henge, in his manual of British Rural Sports, " are often 

 deceived ; and therefore it is reasonable to suppose that 

 no inspection, which an amateur can make, will detect the 

 Defect in the quality of the iron or workmanship. No one 



