CHAPTER XV. 



AN EXCITING DAY'S SPORT. 



THE great object of late years on the part of gun- 

 makers has been to so construct the barrels of the 

 ordinary fowling-piece that they shall throw the 

 greatest number of shots in a given space at a certain 

 distance, and for this purpose there are chokes and 

 modified chokes ; that is, the muzzle is contracted and 

 under the barrel at the breech end is engraved, " Not 

 for ball." This is all very well for sport in a country 

 where no dangerous animals exist, but it is very 

 different in the wilds of India or in Africa. Our 

 forefathers killed as much game as neatly and as far 

 as the best of modern sportsmen. To realise that, 

 one has only to read the diary of Colonel P. Hawker, 

 lately published. Why we should require chokes I 

 don't know. I have ever found that a good cylinder 

 killed quite far enough for me, and it has the further 

 advantage that it will carry ball, if required, fairly 

 true to a distance close upon one hundred yards. 

 The Paradox an invention of Colonel Fosberry, 

 manufactured by the Messrs. Holland, and also, I 

 believe, by Westley Eichards, and somewhat imitated 

 under different names by other makers and would-be 



