THE FOREST AND THE PLAINS. 357 



shot be lodged here, it will infallibly strike the heart. 

 The head should never be aimed at unless in a standing 

 shot, by a certain and steady marksman with a ball in his 

 guu. 



For large game shooting, the rifle should not carry a 

 smaller ball than 32, and I greatly prefer 16 to the Ib. A 

 deer which will carry off a bullet of 60 or less to the 

 pound, apparently unharmed, and die of it in a week after- 

 ward in misery, and unprofitably in the lonely wilderness, 

 will either fall to the shot with broken bones, or bleed 

 to death in a few leaps, more or less, from the large wound 

 inflicted by an ounce ball. 



For buffalo hunting on horseback, the new breech-load- 

 ing carbine, described at page 121, is the implement of all 

 others, for ease of loading, quickness of firing, and the 

 tremendous penetration of its large acorn-shaped ball. 



All sporting rifles should be fitted with fowling-piece 

 stocks, and back-sights moderately open at the top, for 

 catching rapid aim in snap shots, though at the bottom 

 they should be filed into mere hair-line clefts, for the 

 purpose of drawing a fine bead, when desirable. 



Remember, after firing, the first thing to be done is 

 always to reload. No pi-actice is so bad as to go up to a 

 beast, when it has fallen, with an unloaded weapon. If 

 the animal be of a dangerous nature, it is doubly perilous 

 so to approach him, even if he appear to be dead. The 

 first infliction of a wound often produces a stunning sensa- 

 tion, and a sort of stupefaction, which passes away on the 

 fear or rage produced by the sudden advance of an enemy. 

 I have more than once seen deer spring up, go away, as if 



