DETONATING SYSTEM. 83 



intercept the sight of the second. He must, however, 

 compound for a greater recoil to the shoulder ; and, on 

 the whole, I should say, to missing fire rather oftener 

 than with a good flint, -provided he is out in fine still 

 weather. We may, therefore, on the whole, taking 

 all things into consideration, say, that at first a 

 detonater may make a good shot an indifferent shot, 

 and both first and last an indifferent shot a good 

 shot, and therefore we may be rather inclined to give 

 the balance in its favour. But, to coincide with all 

 the panegyrics that are written, by keen young sports- 

 men who happen, perhaps, to have been shooting 

 extremely well, and despatch their bulletins on the 

 spur of the moment, would be to overrate the de- 

 tonater, and to underrate the flint, and therefore not 

 giving a fair and disinterested opinion. 



Why it becomes a question whether a good shot 

 ought to fly to a detonater or not is this : After 

 he has been using one for a season, or even a few 

 weeks' shooting, he will, on taking up his flint gun 

 again, find that it goes comparatively so slow, after 

 the other, that it will appear to hang fire ; and, very 

 probably, so puzzle and disconcert him, that perhaps 

 his best and favourite gun is either packed up for the 

 pawnbroker, or stripped of its flint-appendages, and 

 metamorphosed into a detonater. And the whole 

 armoury, if he has many guns, is considered as mere 

 lumber, unless altered, or exchanged for guns on the 

 detonating system. He therefore takes to fulmi- 

 nating powder, like a wife, " for better for worse," 



