374 On Gun Accidents. 



the right-hand barrel had risen. Now any one would wonder how 

 it was possible that three such accidents could happen with guns in 

 the hands of a man who was well accustomed to them ; and so do 

 I now, as I sit in my chair and write this ; but they did happen, 

 and I would not lay 5 to I that a similar accident might not happen 

 to me to-morrow if I were to go struggling through the snow in 

 our forests in the excitement of following up any game. Some 

 men are by nature more prudent and cautious than others, and to 

 such men there is less chance of accidents of any kind happening j 

 but not one man in a thousand is by nature careful enough to 

 warrant him saying that no gun accident can ever happen to him. 



I have seen three or four awful smashes in Australia with the two- 

 penny twist brummagem barrels that are sent out into the colonies, 

 when stock, lock, and barrel have all disappeared., One happened 

 at my tent door with a gun which a mate of mine had that very after- 

 noon bought for a io/. note, against my advice. In fact, it was so 

 palpable a "duffer" that no one but a fool would have trusted him- 

 self at either end of it. The barrel burst close to the breech. 

 Both locks were carried away (one flew into my tent), and, strange 

 to say, the man who fired it was uninjured. He held the gun with 

 his left hand stretched about ten inches up the barrel, which I 

 cannot help thinking is after all the safest way of holding a gun 

 when firing. 



As I before observed, the common powder-flask is far from safe 

 when loading ; but one would, at least think that there would not 

 be much danger of the flask exploding in the pocket. But it does 

 not appear that this is always so certain, for I once saw a very 

 curious thing happen in Australia where, however, strange and 

 unaccountable things are always taking place. Three of us were 

 out quail-shooting on a blazing hot day/ and as the birds were 

 plentiful and lay like stones, the shooting had been heavy. When 

 we sat down to lunch, we all took out our flasks to take stock of 

 our ammunition. On shaking his flask up and down to see how 

 near it was empty, one of the party fancied he heard something 

 rattle inside it. Upon unscrewing the top, to his surprise he found 



