72 1Rfn0s of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, anb (Bun 



distance, however, is not given, so that one is left rather 

 in the dark, after all, as to the real penetrating power 

 of this wonderful gun. 



With the companion piece, " Death," the Colonel made 

 some very remarkable shooting. Here is a specimen : 

 " My last shot was, I am convinced, at. the distance of 115 

 yards on horseback and at the trot. I hit my bird, which 

 had her wing broke, and was otherwise so much cut about 

 that she could not fly." As I read that statement I 

 think of Sir Samuel Montagu's reduction in the case of 

 angler's stories, and I feel that even more than a third 

 must be subtracted from that distance to bring it 

 within the bounds of credibility. 



I cannot find that on any occasion the Colonel's 

 bag of grouse exceeded fifteen brace in one day, and 

 the best day's partridge-shooting he had with the 

 Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton House only resulted 

 in four and a half brace of birds, three hares, and 

 a woodcock. With his hawks, however, the Colonel 

 had some remarkable sport. In the glens around Loch 

 Lomond they killed forty-nine woodcock in one week. 

 Hawking was occasionally combined with shooting. 

 "The hawks," he writes on one occasion, "drove the 

 game into the junipers below us, by which means we 

 had the sport without the fatigue." The grouse, of 

 course, lay very close whilst their natural enemies were 

 hovering in the air above them, and when flushed 

 afforded easy shots. But I will do the Colonel the 

 justice to say that it was not often he practised this 

 lazy and not very sportsmanlike mode of shooting 

 grouse. He preferred killing his game over dogs. " I 



