acctbentg 



OT a single hunting season closes without 

 the occurence of a number of fatal acci- 

 dents. Some of them, no doubt, may be classed 

 as unavoidable, such as might arise, for instance, 

 by the glancing of a bullet from a branch or tree 

 and consequent deviation from the original line 

 of flight. But fully two-thirds of them happen 

 through carelessness or from insufficient know- 

 ledge of the use and range of fire arms. Coming 

 down on the Saguenay boat in September, 1899, 

 I was watching a tourist firing, with a high- 

 power rifle, at all sorts of objects on the water, 

 without any regard to the direction, and 

 twice I called his attention to the fact that he was 

 aiming in the direction of some settlements, not 

 more than a thousand yards distant. He did not 

 appear to have the slightest idea of the range of 

 one of these modern rifles. Whether this was due 

 to ignorance or to some defect of vision on his 

 part I cannot say, but there certainly was dan- 

 ger to those in the vicinity of such a man. I have 

 sen others handling loaded guns and rifles just 

 as if they were broomsticks, shifting them around 

 all the points of the compass, without seeming to 

 know that they were a menace to the life of their 

 friends. 



