MOCCASINS, BUCKSKIN, ETC. 389 



had a natural point blank of two hundred yards. 

 He supposed the ball would drop about two feet in 

 the next hundred yards, or have a total drop of two 

 feet for three hundred yards. These ideas he had got- 

 ten as most hunters get their notions from his im- 

 agination and careless observation; never having tried 

 his rifle. He saw a deer at three hundred yards as he 

 supposed, sighted about two feet above its back, and 

 down came the deer shot through the heart. He 

 had never shot many deer, and of course was highly 

 delighted with such a shot. He looked the ground 

 over and felt satisfied he had not done himself justice. 

 So he took the trouble to do what few ever do on long 

 shots: he paced the distance. Rash man ! such a 

 thing is even worse than weighing a trout. By the 

 shortest strides that would satisfy his conscience it 

 was only a hundred and eighty yards. The ball had 

 fallen about three feet, about its natural drop for that 

 distance. Had he been right in his estimate of dis- 

 tance it would have fallen about sixteen feet. 



It is rare that you can thus utilize errors, making 

 them counteract each other. But you can make a 

 far better use of them. That is, study them. Study 

 them 



ist. To see whether they really be errors or not. 



2d. To learn how to avoid them. 



In no way will you learn as much as by doing this. 

 If there be anything that makes this book of any 

 value, if there be any soundness of principle in it, any 

 thoroughness and carefulness of analysis, any clear ex- 

 position of mistakes that will be likely to entrap the 

 beginner, anything new or unwritten about before, it 

 is due solely to two facts: 



