UPLAND SHOOTING. 311 



Nevertheless, I say, if any man be disposed to go to the trouble 

 of importing an English gun at all, let him import a first-rate 

 and first price London article. I never saw a Birmingham gun 

 I would have caved to shoot witli ; and I do not considi;r that 

 Westley Richards' merits at all equal his reputation. I consider 

 Purdey, Lancaster, and Moore and Gray, the first throe makers 

 of the day ; and were I offered the gift of a gun, with the choice 

 of the maker, I should name the latter house as my makers. 



No. 4 shot I consider quite large enough for any kind of 

 fowl, unless Canada Geese, or Wild Swans ; but I would al- 

 ways use a green Elcy's cartridge in one barrel. The best 

 powder, beyond all question or comparison, for fowling, and es- 

 pecially 6(?a shooting, is what is called Hawlcer's Ducking Powder, 

 prepared by Curtis and Hai-\'ey, as the diamond grain of the 

 same house is by all odds the quickest, strongest, and cleanest 

 powder in the world. The grain of the ducking powder is ex- 

 tremely coarse — coarser than cannon powder — and very hard ; 

 it is not, therefore, liable to become damp or liquefied, when 

 exposed to a saline atmosphere. Notwithstanding the large 

 size of its grain, it is readily ignited even in a small gun, by one 

 of Starkey's central fire wateqi roof caps. One of these, for an 

 experiment, I kept forty-eight hours in a tumbler full of water, 

 and it exploded quickly and cleanly. There is nothing like 

 them, — but, like all good things, they are dear. For the rest, a 

 person who cares to keep but one gun, will find himself able to 

 do good work with a general shooting piece of 14-guage, 32 

 inches barrel, and 8 lbs. weight, even at fowl, if he uses No. 4, 

 Eley's wire cartridges. Verbum saj). And so adieu to Upland 

 shooting. 



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