108 MANUAL FOB YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



laid away for half a dozen years, they will be found, when 

 cleaned, in perfect condition. To clean them, plunge the 

 barrels, as before, into hot water, and stand them near the 

 fire until the grease within, being completely liquefied, can 

 be turned out ; the barrels should be then washed, dried, 

 and cleaned as usual after a day's shooting, the pine pegs 

 removed from the nipples, and they will be ready for any 

 service. 



Loon-skin oil, mentioned above, is thus made. Cut 

 away with a sharp knife all the fat, nearly half an inch in 

 thickness, which comes away, adhering to the inside of the 

 skin, when the bird is flayed ; try it out in an earthen pot 

 or crucible, purify by inserting old nails or shot for ten 

 days, draw off the oil, and bottle. 



It is the sovereignest thing in the world to prevent rust, 

 especially the rust arising from sea-air ; I learned the use 

 of it from observing that the gunners at Barnegat, Egg 

 Harbor, &c., constantly, when out on the bays, keep a piece 

 of loon-skin in the pocket of their pea-jackets, and therewith 

 wipe, from time to time, with the fleshy or fatty side, the 

 metallic parts of their fowling-pieces. Perceiving the 

 effect of this, I improved on the plan, by trying out and 

 bottling the oil, and from long trial can pronounce it the 

 best detergent and preventive of rust. 



A few words on the rifle, that most American of all 

 fire-arms, as adapted to sporting purposes, and to field use 

 as opposed to target practice, and I pass on to more inter- 

 esting, if not more indispensable portions of my subject. 



The ordinary old-fashioned rifle of the American back- 

 woodsman, which did its work of extermination on the 



