202 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



passers away it is rather due to his known vigilance and 

 watchfulness. His rather hasty notions of taking the law 

 into his own hands are hardly in accord with the spirit of 

 the times ; but some allowance must be made for the 

 circumstances of his life, and it is my object to picture the 

 man as he is. 



There are other dangers from guns beside these. A 

 brown gaiter indistinctly seen moving some distance off in 

 in the tall dry grass or fern the wearer hidden by the 

 bushes has not unfrequently been mistaken for game in 

 the haste and excitement of shooting, and received a salute 

 of leaden hail. This is a danger to which sportsman and 

 keeper are both liable, especially when large parties are 

 engaged in rapid firing ; sometimes a particular corner 

 gets very ' hot,' being enfiladed for the moment by several 

 guns. Yet, when the great number of men who shoot is 

 considered, the percentage of serious accidents is small 

 indeed ; more fatal accidents probably happen through 

 unskilled persons thoughtlessly playing with guns supposed 

 not to be loaded, or pointing them in joke, than ever occur 

 in the field. The ease with which the breech-loader can be 

 unloaded or reloaded again prevents most persons from 

 carrying it indoors charged ; and this in itself is a gain on 

 the side of safety, for perhaps half the fatal accidents take 

 place within doors. 



In farmsteads where the owner had the right of shoot- 

 ing, the muzzle-loader was and still is, when not converted 



