SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 121 



Manton, and directed him to glue on a very 

 thick piece of leather, at the extremity of 

 the stock, whereon the barrels rested. I 

 also had a wooden check let into the but, 

 to prevent my getting my eye down in a 

 line with the barrels. When it Avas done, 

 looking at it, he said : '' This gun is so 

 m.uch elevated, sir, that you surely, at short 

 distances, must shoot over the birds,'' He 

 did not recollect that, elevated as it was, 

 the lower part of the circle of the shot 

 would take the bird, and, at sliort dista?ices, 

 shoot strong enough to kill. When his 

 elevation-sights first were produced, he was 

 candid enough then to own to me, that my 

 method of stocking my gun had just the 

 same effect as his elevation-sight, (or rib, I 

 believe it is called.) 



is crooked stocked ; he must shoot under the birds. I 

 knew a person once, indeed, who shot extremely weU 

 with a gun stocked so crooked, that I could not shoot 

 with it ; but then he held his head up as directly straight 

 as a soldier under arms on the parade: the very position 

 he held his head in, gave the rnnzzle of the gun aa 

 ekvation. 



