LOON-SHOOTIXG IN A THUNDER-STOEM. 107 



under in time to escape the bullet. Yet I have 

 killed them rej^eatedly on Long Island Sound, driv- 

 ing my buUet through the butt of the wing, thirty 

 rods away. There are two styles of gun-tubes ; the 

 first kind is so open as to allow the powder to pass 

 up to the cap. AVhen the cap explodes, this pow- 

 der must burn grain by grain, and so comparative- 

 ly slow. The other kind is so made as to prevent 

 the powder from passing up into it ; and the 

 lightning-like percussion has free course to the 

 centre of the charge in the chamber. Slight as the 

 difference w^ould seem to be, it is a vital one in 

 loon-shooting. With tubes of either make in the 

 barrels of my rifle, loading with the same charge, I 

 have killed with the one and invariably failed to 

 kill with the other. Unfortunately, the tubes in my 

 barrels this season were both open ones ; and to this 

 John alluded in his closing remark. 



" John," said I, counting out fifty bullets and 

 laying them on the bottom of the boat within 

 easy reach, " there are fifty bullets ; and if you 

 say the word, shower or no shower, we '11 give that 

 old loon a lively time before we strike the carry." 



" Well," said John as he ran his eye over the 

 western heavens, now black as night, save when a 

 bright flash clove the darkness or leaped crinkling 

 along the inky mass, " let 's give her a try. We 

 shall have an hour, anyway, before the rain reaches 

 us, and I would like to see that loon in the bottom 

 of the boat." 



