336 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



The same thing may be done by dropping a very 

 small nail into the hole head first, filling it around 

 with powder, and putting a tight-fitting cap on the 

 nail and covering with wax, etc. These will explode 

 on the softest flesh and even on water. An eight- 

 pound jack-rabbit standing on his hind-legs and 

 struck in the middle was distributed in a hundred 

 pieces for thirty feet around, not a piece big enough 

 to fry being left. Firing into the water just below a 

 mud-hen a .22 cartridge in the ball raised it five feet 

 out of water and broke its back, one wing, and one leg, 

 though none of the ball touched it. From such a ball 

 I very naturally expected tremendous results. 



One of the first things I observed was that upon 

 deer, coyotes, wildcats, and foxes the explosion pro- 

 duced no such effect as it did upon hares. Though 

 the balls could be distinctly heard to explode and the 

 flesh found blackened with the powder, there was no 

 blowing or rending effect whatever. The hole was 

 precisely the same as that made by the same ball 

 left with the hole unfilled by anything. The killing 

 effect appeared upon deer to be even a trifle less, and 

 the penetration of the non -explosive ones was percep- 

 tibly the best. Determined to thoroughly probe the 

 subject, I bored out some long-range .44 balls so as 

 to admit a .32 long cartridge. Two of these I tried 

 on an ancient Thomas-cat that had outlived his use- 

 fulness. Neither upon the shoulders nor upon the 

 head could I discover any blowing or rending what- 

 ever, though the hole was blackened by powder. The 

 hole was large and constantly expanding; but was 

 merely cut the same as the empty balls would do it. 

 Blocks of dry cottonwood, straight-grained, one foot 

 long and about eight inches in diameter, that one blow 



