298 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



come across duck, for the facility with which you can 

 withdraw one charge and substitute another, is one of 

 the great points of excellence which the new gun 

 possesses over the old pattern. Moreover, when your 

 day's work is over and your domicile reached, if you 

 are careful of your ammunition and dislike throwing 

 away a couple of charges-, you can extract your car- 

 tridges in a moment. Persons residing in the country 

 often deem it necessary to retain at least one gun in 

 the house, loaded, for the reason, that if you should be 

 suddenly called upon to shoot some marauding hawk 

 which is decimating the hen-roost, the delay of loading 

 would be fatal to any chance of killing the bloodthirsty 

 scoundrel. Still, at all times, particularly if there are 

 children about, loaded guns ate most objectionable ; 

 but if you chance to be possessed of a breech-loader, 

 this is obviated, for the gun can be loaded almost 

 instantaneously. It is of such frequent occurrence 

 to read in our public papers accounts of frightful 

 accidents, resulting from strangers or youths playing 

 with loaded arms, that we should feel thankful that at 

 length such an invention has been perfected, as will at 

 least reduce, if not totally abolish, these heart-rending 

 misfortunes. 



If your frame be cast in that iron mould which 

 nature has bestowed on some, and you are consequently 



