34:0 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



from punts, are strictly prohibited, as they cause the fowl 

 wholly to desert places where such practices obtain, and are 

 esteemed and that deservedly unsportsmanlike, and un- 

 worthy of gentlemen. 



For all fowl shooting on salt water, where the saline 

 particles of the atmosphere disorganize the gunpowder 

 from their affinity with the saltpetre, large coarse-grained 

 cannon powder is preferable to the finer article, and the 

 best of all is Hawker's ducking powder, prepared by Cur- 

 tis and Harvey. This, with the best of Starkey's central 

 fire-caps, will insure the discharge of the gun even in a 

 sea-mist. 



For the rest, I think fowl shooters almost invariably 

 overcharge with powder, and use shot of too coarse a 

 grain. The shot is amply large, which will break the pin- 

 ion of the game at which it is fired, at seventy yards. All 

 extra weight is thrown away, with a positive loss in the 

 number of shot lodged in the same space. 



SS in green cartridges are all very well for wild swan 

 shooting, and in 4 oz. cartridges for a gun of 5 calibre, it 

 will be difficult to say how far they will not carry, and 

 kill. I should dislike marvellously to be in the fair range 

 of one at half a mile. BB is proper for geese or brant, 

 but for all other fowl, for the largest shoulder-guns 1 or 2 

 is amply large for any range ; and from guns not exceeding 

 10 gauge, No 3 or 4 will do more execution. Equal meas- 

 ures, not weights, of shot and powder, are, in my judg- 

 ment, the best proportions for all guns. 



Sea-shooting of wild fowl, as it is practised on all the 

 bays as they are improperly called, being in truth shallow, 



