152 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



they found that fifteens and fourteens outshot vastly the 

 old small calibres — fifty years since no guns were larger 

 than eighteen, and few than twenty; they are now quite 

 out-doing it. I have seen late-imported gun^ of seven 

 pounds, and not above twenty-six inches long, with eleven 

 and even ten gauge calibres! you might as well shoot with 

 a blunderbus at once!" 



"They would tell at cock in close sununer covert," an- 

 swered A . 



"For a man who can't cover his bird they might," re- 

 pied Harry; "but you may rely on it they lose three times 

 as much in force as they gain in the space they cover; at 

 forty yards you could not kill even a woodcock with them 

 once in fifty times, and a quail, or English snipe, at that 

 distance never!" 



"What do you think the right length and weight, then, 

 for an eleven bore?" 



"Certainly not less than nine pounds, and thirty inches ; 

 but I would prefer ten pounds and thirty-three inches; 

 though, except for a fowl-gun to use in boat-shooting, such 

 a piece would be quite too ponderous and clumsy. My 

 single gun is eleven gauge, eight pounds and thirty-three 

 inches; and even with loose shot executes superbly; but 

 with Ely's green cartridge I have put forty BB shot into 

 a square of two and a half feet at one hundred and 

 twenty-five yards; sharply enough, too, to imbed the shot 

 80 firmly in the fence against which I had fixed my mark, 

 that it required a good strong knife to get them out. 

 This I propose that you should use to-morrow, with a ll-o 

 oz. SG cartridge, which contains eighteen buck-shot, and 

 which, if you get a shot any where within a hundred 

 yards, will kill him as dead, I warrant it, as an ounce 

 bullet." 



"Which you intend to try, I fancy," added Frank. 



"Not quite! my rifle carries eighteen only to the 

 pound ; and yours, if I forget not, only thirty-two." 



"But mine is double." 



"Never mind that; thirty-two will not execute with 

 certainty above a hundred and fifty yards!" 



"And how far in the devil's name would you have it 

 execute, as you calls it," asked old Tom. 



"Three hundred!" replied Harry, coolly. 



