NIGHT CART1UDGES. 359 



it out with the greatest ease ; and in any position, 

 should you wish to unload your gun, change the size 

 of your shot, &c. I made several of these cartridges 

 for a musket, to stop crippled geese with ; and, if I 

 wanted to load in a hurry, I put the oakum end down- 

 wards, without any other wadding, and they shot very 

 well. But, when I had time, I loaded as before di- 

 rected ; and found that even in a shoulder-gun, these 

 cartridges shot better than the common mode of load- 

 ing. If used in a double gun, the oakum heads must 

 fit sufficiently tight to prevent the recoil of one barrel 

 from jarring the charge of the other. But this very 

 rarely occurs with any kind of cartridge, if it fits tole- 

 rably well. I have tried at least two hundred rounds of 

 these cartridges in my huge double gun, and they an- 

 swer so well that I never use any thing else, unless I 

 want Eley's for long wild day-work ; and his cartridges, 

 by the way, would never draw out, till I got him to put 

 on them my oakum top-knots. But for game shooting 

 all these little things are not required ; here we may 

 " leave well enough alone," and be content with having 

 every thing to the summit of our wishes, if we only 

 know how to make use of it. 



For a box to take cartridges afloat, and keep them 

 perfectly, dry, see the one that I have put in the plate 

 with gunning-punt and gear. 



Having now loaded our gun, nothing remains but 

 the priming, for which I should recommend a small 

 pistol-flask, with a top that holds just enough for the 

 pan ; by which means we are not so liable to overload 

 the pan, or spill the powder in the dark. Clean your 

 touch-hole after every shot with a clipped feather ; poke 

 a little of ihe fine priming powder into it, before you 



