On Gun Accidents, 365 



flaw in the steel, the hammer would fall down and explode the cap. 

 Even when the cap is removed, a loaded gun is not safe. The foil- 

 lined caps are certainly safer than those in which the percussion powder 

 is only pasted into the top of the cap without any covering 5 but I 

 have known two instances myself of the gun firing through a little 

 of the detonating powder being left loose on the top of the nipple 

 after the cap had been removed. 



Now these casualties may not altogether be avoided by the breech- 

 loading system, but two prolific causes of the accidents which are so 

 frequently happening with the old muzzle-loader are altogether done 

 away with by the new plan of loading. I of course allude to the 

 risk of one barrel in a double gun going off while the sportsman is 

 ramming down the charge in the other barrel, and to the chance of 

 the gun bursting through the wadding slipping up in the barrel 

 and leaving a vacuum between it and the charge. I will be bound 

 to say that there are very few men who have shot much, who have 

 not more than once in their lives, when loading a double gun in a 

 hurry, been horrified at discovering that they have been hammering 

 down the left-hand charge, for instance, with the right-hand lock 

 at full cock. Now this can never happen with a breech-loader. 



If admonitions and warnings are to be regarded, and will serve to 

 render a man careful in the use of a gun, no one ought to be more 

 so than myself 3 for I have not only witnessed serious accidents 

 happen from firearms, but I have had some awfully narrow escapes 

 myself. I do not believe I am more careless than the generality of 

 sportsmen, and I ought to know how to use and handle a gun, if 

 practice can teach it 3 and yet I am certain not a year passes but I 

 can look back at the end of it, and call to mind one, if not more, 

 narrow escapes which, because I escaped, I thought nothing of, but 

 which, if I had not escaped, would have cost me the loss of a limb, 

 if not of my life. I believe a man who is in the constant habit of 

 ahooting by himself is, in general, far more reckless and careless 

 with his gun than the man who is accustomed to shoot in company. 

 It is true that the solitary sportsman has only to look out for him- 

 self, and does not risk the life of another by his carelessness 3 but it 



