BULLETS AND THEIE BILLETS 



We have dropped from a mile, to 

 ranges of a couple of hundred yards, 

 where still there are a good many quite 

 forgivable misses; what shall one say, 

 however, of utter failures at the dis- 

 tance of a pistol shot? When twenty- 

 two futile bullets are despatched at a 

 pair of caribou but thirty yards away, so 

 engrossed in a private battle as to be 

 oblivious of the firing, and this by a 

 marksman who would ordinarily put a 

 bullet in a hat at a hundred paces, some 

 explanation must be looked for. Again, 

 shooting from a canoe is far from easy, 

 but one cartridge, out of a magazine- 

 full, should get home in such a mark as 

 the side of a moose presents at sixty 

 yards ; yet one recollects hopelessly mis- 

 directed shots, where many seconds 

 were at disposal for bringing the rifle 

 quietly to bear. There is of course no 

 real aiming when this happens, no 

 actual alignment of the sights with the 

 target, and one is driven to suppose that 



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