Joe /IDanton 99 



since all guns are now made to fire with nearly equal 

 velocity. Still, however, fortunately for the leading 

 gun makers, there are yet left many requisites which 

 induce good sportsmen to go to the heads of the trade, 

 viz. (i) soundness and perfect safety in guns; (2) the 

 barrels being correctly put together for accurate shoot- 

 ing ; (3) the elevation being mathematically true, and 

 raised strictly in proportion to the length of tJte barrel ; 

 and (4) the stock being properly cast off to the eye, 

 and well fitted to the hand and shoulder. I say nothing 

 of the balance, because any good carpenter, with some 

 lead and a centre-bit, can regulate this to the shooter's 

 fancy." 



These remarks were written when the detonator was 

 comparatively new that is to say, in the year 1822. I 

 gather, however, from the following passage that the 

 Colonel had considerably modified his ideas twenty 

 years later, despite his half-hearted assertion to the 

 contrary, " Though like the rest of the world," he 

 writes in the ninth edition of his " Instructions to Young 

 Sportsmen," " I have long been kidnapped into the 

 constant use of detonators, still I have no reason to 

 alter the opinion I gave in 1822: and were my time 

 to come over again, I might probably be content with 

 the flint, though I have, of course, as everyone does, 

 shot more accurately and missed fewer quick shots 

 with the detonator." 



It seems odd to us of this generation that any 

 sane human being could possibly prefer a flint to a 

 percussion gun. But your middle-aged sportsman is 

 the most conservative of mortals: he abhors every 



