84 DETONATING SYSTEM. 



and this is one of the chief reasons why the percus- 

 sion plan has so rapidly superseded the flint. Did 

 both go equally quick, I am inclined to think the 

 flint would have held the majority. If a sportsman, 

 who has no money to throw away, has been accom- 

 modated with the loan of a detonater, the only way 

 for him to back out of it, is to modulate as it were 

 into his flint gun again, by using the slowest old 

 musket he can lay hands on, and then taking, after 

 that, his best flint gun. 



Before dismissing this subject, I must just name one 

 circumstance : While I was using nothing but de- 

 tonating guns for four seasons, it was the remark of 

 my man, that he never had the pleasure to see me 

 make such long shots as I was once in the habit of 

 doing ; and I, ready to lay all the fault on myself, or 

 rather to a premature attack of that anno domini 

 complaint which must befall the best of us, felt that 

 I dare not blame a system which my superiors had so 

 universally adopted. I took up a flint-gun. This 

 was worse and worse ; as its comparative slowness 

 made me miss even fair shots. Last year, however, 

 having been prevented, by illness, from taking a gun 

 in hand till just before the end of the season, the 

 sensation of firing a flint and a detonater became as 

 it were de novo. I accordingly took out a flint-gun, 

 and down came the long shots, as in former days ! 

 I name this as a simple fact. Let others argue the 

 point as they please. So I shall now conclude the 

 subject by reducing the matter to a very few words. 



