204 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



choked with a long iron rod made red-hot : the explosion 

 which followed drove the rod through his hand and into 

 the wooden wall of the shed. Smiths seem to have a 

 particular fondness for meddling with guns, and generally 

 have one stowed away somewhere. 



It was not wonderful that accidents happened with 

 the muzzle-loaders, considering the manner in which they 

 were handled by ignorant persons. The keeper declares 

 that many of the cottagers, who have an old single-barrel, 

 ostensibly to frighten the birds from their gardens, do not 

 think it properly loaded until the ramrod jumps out of 

 the barrel. They ram the charge, and especially the 

 powder, with such force that the rebound sends the rod 

 right out, and he has seen those who were not cottagers 

 follow the same practice. A close-fitting wad, too tight 

 for the barrel, will sometimes cause the rod to spring high 

 above the muzzle : as it is pushed quickly down it com- 

 presses the air in the tube, which expands with a sharp 

 report and drives the rod out. 



Loading with paper, again, has often resulted in 

 mischief: sometimes a smouldering fragment remains in 

 the barrel after the discharge, and on pouring in powder 

 from the flask it catches and runs like a train up to the 

 flask, which may burst in the hand. For this reason to 

 this day some of the old farmers, clinging to ancient 

 custom, always load with a clay tobacco pipe-bowl, snapped 

 off from the stem for the purpose. It is supposed to hold 



