228 FRANK fokester's field sports. 



at a isliort distance, rather than to rapid sighting, and quick 

 firing. In the same manner, the difficulty of procuring ammu- 

 nition, and of carrying a sufficiency of lead for the moulding of 

 hirL;e bullets in distant and sparsely settled districts, afar from 

 shops and civilization, have led to the adoption of the small 

 bore and tiny bullets, by which a few ounces of powder, and a 

 single pound of lead, may be made to subsist a hunter during a 

 whole year in the wilderness. 



The same cause has led to the habit of stealing warily upon 

 the game, and never firing a shot until certain of a close and 

 covered aim. This practice, however, like the rifle formed with 

 regard to it, will not be found effective on the great open plains 

 of the West, nor with any animal which must be hunted down 

 by speed of foot, and shot while at speed, in lieu of being marked 

 down by wary ambush ; nor is this a mere theory of mine, for 

 throughout the South and South West, wherever the rifle is 

 used in preference to the gun and buck-shot, the yager, as it is 

 called, or short-barrelled, large-bored piece, is universally pre- 

 ferred ; and on the prairies the ponderous, unwieldy, long pea 

 rifle, is disused, — guns caiTying less than thirty-five or forty to 

 the pound being, as I am informed, at a discount. 



I am not aware what weapon the United States Voltigeurs 

 and Mounted Rifles carry, but I presume it is a plainly-stocked 

 piece, without the crescent-shaped heel-plate ; otherwise I can- 

 not conceive the possibility of attaining any rapidity or regula- 

 rity in platoon or volley firing. But enough of the rifle, — and 

 these remarks will be all that are required on this subject, being 

 equally applicable to every species of hunting of which I shali 

 treat, but the more particularly so with the larger and more 

 savage quadrupeds. 



The next question to be considered is the sportsman's dress ; 

 and as it is in the coldest weather only that this sport is pur- 

 sued, warmth is a sine qua non, while any apparatus of great 

 coats, or the like, is so inconvenient and unwieldy, that it can- 

 not be adopted in the field. 



On the whole, the best rig is a red flannel shirt, buckskin 



