376 On Gun Occidents. 



mine, a gamekeeper, who told me he had read my chapter with 

 great interest, and that if he chose he could narrate quite as many 

 narrow escapes. Now, probably, this man had had double the 

 experience, perhaps ten times that, of the two Field correspondents 

 who sneered at my list of escapes so I was perfectly satisfied 

 that if casualties with guns are always to be attributed to careless- 

 ness, there was at least one man living who was as careless as 

 myself. 



Probably many men may have shot for years without either an 

 accident or an escape ; but I do not think such men have any 

 right altogether to attribute this circumstance to their great care 

 and caution when handling guns, for I have no doubt that if they 

 did but know it, many times the muzzle of their guns have been in 

 a position (though perhaps only for a moment) when a discharge 

 would have cost them a life or a limb. I do not for a moment 

 deny that a naturally careful man is much fitter to be trusted with 

 a gun than a careless one ; but no one can say that a gun is always 

 safe even in the hands of the most cautious and experienced for I 

 again repeat it, that no mortal can be on his guard at all times ; 

 and a man, when out shooting, will often altogether forget even 

 that he has a gun in his hand, and at such times it is impossible 

 for any one to say that an accident might not have happened had 

 Providence so willed it. 



