16 EARLY LIFE 



to see one of them broken or out of order. They 

 used to be made by the firm of Parker, Field & 

 Son, of Sheffield, England. This particular one 

 of mine was nearly new. It had been used by an 

 Indian on a caribou hunt, and had burst, through 

 a bullet sticking half way down the barrel. My 

 father had filed off the end, which left the barrel 

 only about fifteen inches long. Up to fifteen 

 yards the pattern was fairly good, but beyond 

 that distance it scattered very much. It had 

 good penetration, because the shot then in use 

 on the coast was very large, BB and AAA; and 

 even to this day some old hunters will not use 

 anything smaller than BB shot. Fifteen to 

 twenty pellets was a fair load. With such an 

 outfit it was surprising to see the quantity of 

 birds of all kinds that I managed to bring home ; 

 many of them, however, not on the game list. 

 They were all killed by pot shots and by dint of 

 crawling on hands and knees, and lying in watch 

 for hours at a time. Many an anxious moment 

 did my poor mother have on my account, thinking 

 me lost in the woods or the victim of some acci- 

 dent. Very often my father, or some one else 

 would be sent to hunt me up. I am thankful to 

 say that I never met with an accident, thanks, 

 probably, to the very good training I had received 

 from my father, who was a good shot himself, 

 and fond of shooting and fishing. Several places 



