428 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



tion from rust, for reasons before stated. The nipples should be 

 covered with a particle of shoemakers' wax, or caoutchouc. This 

 done, the gun is now to be laid away in a dry place ; otherwise all 

 our preventive treatment will prove abortive. It will be prudent 

 to examine our guns from time to time when not in constant use, 

 and rub them off occasionally with a linen cloth and a little oil. 



If, however, the reader should reside near the sea-shore, it will 

 be necessary to use some further precautions to protect his fowling- 

 piece during the idle season ; and we know of no better plan than 

 melting pure mutton-suet and filling the barrels with it, and also 

 giving the outside a coating of the same, which may be easily done 

 by pouring or smearing it over the gun when in a semi-liquid state ; 

 this plan, to-be-sure, is not a very nice one, but nevertheless it is a 

 very effectual one. 



Another plan, and perhaps a more acceptable method to many, 

 is to give the barrels a light coating of simple varnish, which will 

 protect them equally well from the action of the air. 



If, however, the operation of filling the barrels with mutton-suet 

 be not convenient or agreeable, they may be oiled, and filled with 

 a rod covered over with a woollen cloth of some kind and made so 

 as to exactly fill the calibre of the gun and by this means exclude 

 every particle of air from them. The breeches should be removed 

 for examination, and oiled before being put away. 



Neatsfoot-oil is the only kind of oil admissible for these purposes. 

 This unguent, however, is hardly pure or thin enough to be put on 

 the machinery of the lock. We have been using latterly, as a gene- 

 ral lubricating oil, a very beautiful French preparation by Adolphe 

 Millochau. It is put up in small bottles of an ounce or less, and 

 labelled "huile pour les armuriers," and can be purchased at most 

 of the sporting stores on Broadway for a mere trifle. Mercurial 

 ointment is highly recommended by Hawker for duck-guns, as also 

 the following compound, taken from Daniels' Rural Sports. We 

 have tried both, and found them equally efficacious in preventing 

 rust. 



