BRITISH FIELD SPORTS. 299 



shooting. Double barrels came into use, horse-nail 

 stubs were employed in the manufacture of barrels, 

 the patent breech and percussion-cap were invented, 

 and the wire-cartridge has since been introduced. 

 Not the least improvement has been that in the 

 manufacture of gunpowder. The excellence of our 

 guns and dogs has tended much to spread the love 

 of shooting, which has become the most popular and 

 universal of British field-sports. 



It has been remarked, that ours is pre-eminently 

 the land of sportsmen the very name being un- 

 known in all other countries. The observation 

 is in a great measure true, for, if we look around 

 the globe, we find that wherever wild animals 

 are killed for the sake of sport, it is mostly by 

 the Englishman. In Sweden the Englishman 

 alone kills the bear for sport. The natives kill 

 it for the sake of reward, or to rid themselves of 

 a noxious neighbour. In Asia, the only sportsman 

 that encounters the royal tiger is the Englishman ; 

 the native shekerrie shoots the tiger for profit. 

 There also the buffalo and the boar are hunted by 

 the Englishman alone. In Africa, it is the Eng- 

 lishman who hunts the lion, the hippopotamus, and 

 the giraffe. And in America, it is the English- 

 man, or English settler, who hunts the panther, 

 the bison, and the bear, for sport ; the natives do 

 so from necessity. Since, then, the Englishman is 

 the universal sportsman, it behoves the officer, the 

 emigrant, and the tourist, to make themselves ac- 

 quainted not only with what may be called the first 

 principles of sporting, but more especially with the 



