48 SHOOTING ACCIDENTS 



to one hundred and seventeen, nearly half of 

 which were fatal. Now, from what little experi- 

 ence I have in hunting, I would assuredly put 

 down one hundred of the above to carelessness 

 and recklessness in shooting or handling fire 

 arms. On the North Shore here, say from Ber- 

 simis to Natashquan, I estimate that we have 

 about two thousand five hundred persons hand- 

 ling fire arms, six months out of the twelve, with 

 an average percentage of one fatal accident in 

 five years. Of those that I know of, one was 

 killed by falling with his loaded gun, two were 

 killed in pulling a muzzle-loading gun out of a 

 canoe, one was killed while loading his gun, a 

 double barrelled one, the stock of which was rest- 

 ing on his snowshoes and slipping off struck the 

 hammer on the frame of the shoe, causing the ex- 

 plosion. One was killed by his brother going 

 over a fence with his loaded gun. Some few 

 minor accidents have occurred through the burst- 

 ing of cheap guns, and from stray pellets of shot 

 while shooting seals, ducks, or ptarmigan. But 

 in fifty years I have heard of only one case, 

 that of the Indian Chief "Natsishuk," where a 

 man was shot at by mistake for game, and as he 

 was wrapped up in the skin of a seal there was 

 some excuse. But in my opinion there is none for 

 the what shall I call him? The fool who 

 shoots at anything he sees moving, without first 

 ascertaining what it is. I have hunted all my 



