364 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



hundred yards, the ball at ten or fifteen yards from 

 the muzzle rises into and cuts the level line of sights, 

 keeps above the line of sights, rising all the way 

 to about a hundred and ten yards, then descends 

 toward the line of sights, and touches it again at two 

 hundred yards the bull's-eye. This is called the 

 " artificial point-blank," and may be varied to any 

 distance to which the rifle may shoot. It is contended 

 by good authority, and on very strong grounds too, 

 that this is the only point-blank, that no such thing 

 as a natural point-blank exists, and that the distinc- 

 tion should be abolished as absurd. My answer is, 

 that though according to strict philosophy there may 

 be no natural point-blank, yet that practically there is; 

 that the idea is firmly lodged in the heads of the great 

 majority and never can be dislodged; and, above all, 

 that there is no sounder philosophy than that which 

 recognizes a useful, practical truth, although it may 

 be in fact an error. 



By the artificial point-blank all the practical advan- 

 tages of the natural point-blank may not only be re- 

 tained but much extended. Suppose a rifle to have 

 a natural point-blank of seventy-five yards, the ball 

 at that point being about an inch and a half below the 

 center. Now if the ball had been made to just cross 

 the line of sights at forty yards, it would be in the 

 center of the mark at eighty yards and not over 

 an inch below it at a hundred yards. And yet it 

 would not have missed a squirrel's head anywhere 

 along the line. In this way a rifle throwing a very 

 swift large ball may be made to shoot to a hundred 

 and thirty or a hundred and forty yards, so that one 

 can shoot all along the line at small marks and yet 

 notice neither rise nor fall so long as he shoots off- 



