THE GUN AND ITS VARIOUS PARTS. 435 



weapons were of so unwieldy a character that it was not thought 

 of introducing them into the chase. Even in the reign of Eliza- 

 beth, the muskets made under her directions for the use of the 

 army were so large and heavy that it was impossible for the soldier 

 to travel any great distance with them, or to hold them out at 

 arm's length for the purpose of firing : but each one was obliged to 

 carry a staff with him, which he stuck in the ground to rest the 

 instrument upon while taking aim at his adversary. It was not 

 till the reign of Charles the First (1625) that small-arms were 

 made of such proportions as adapted them to the use of sportsmen ; 

 and even at this late period nearly three hundred years after the 

 introduction of gunpowder the small-arms, though vastly im- 

 proved, were still rude and cumbersome instruments, and suitable 

 only for the pursuit of large animals, as they could not be handled 

 or discharged with sufficient ease to enable the bearer to kill a bird 

 on the wing. These weapons, like many other articles, have gone 

 through a regular series of improvements, until at last they have 

 in the present age arrived at a state of perfection beyond which it 

 is difficult to conceive any thing superior. Although the manu- 

 facture of guns has arrived at its present state of excellency, there 

 are thousands of miserable guns thrown into the markets of this 

 country ; and very few really good ones are to be obtained, except 

 from those who import directly from some one of the celebrated 

 makers of England, or by applying only to some two or three of 

 our own gunsmiths either in Philadelphia or New York ; and then 

 it is no easy matter to get exactly what the sportsman wishes, if 

 he be not able to describe minutely and superintend in a measure 

 the building of it himself. The reason of this is that our me- 

 chanics have so many tastes and fancies to please, owing principally 

 to the ignorance of those who order fowling-pieces, that they have 

 adopted no generally-acknowledged standard or style to guide 

 them in the getting up of guns suitable for certain kinds of sport. 

 We wish our readers to acquire a certain degree of information 

 on these points, so that they may sit at home and give an order for 

 a gun to be made in some distant city, using all the terms and tech- 



