THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 49 



times out of ten, the cause of missing; and, whether on 

 the duelling ground, or in the sporting field, the bravest 

 and coolest man will be a shade more hasty and excited, 

 than in the shooting gallery or the target ground. There- 

 fore, no hair-triggers for me ! 



Now, then,- it has been shown briefly, and I trust com- 

 prehensively, above, how to choose a gun in reference 

 solely to its peculiar fitness and adaptation of form, length, 

 weight, manageableness, &c., to the individual purchaser, 

 wholly apart from its intrinsic goodness of metal, work- 

 manship, finish or effectiveness. If it be of such weight 

 that he can handle it readily and rapidly, and can carry 

 it without fatigue during a long and hot day's shooting 

 if it come up truly and quickly to his eye if its trigger 

 yield to a pull which requires no jerk or effort, in the 

 first instance, the gun may be said to suit the person. 



Of its intrinsic value much more remains to be said. 

 I do not by any means propose, in this place, to follow 

 the example of many of my predecessors in the composi- 

 tion of works of this order, an example I think " more 

 honored in the breach than the observance," in attempting 

 an elaborate description of the various kinds of metal, the 

 varieties of workmanship, much less the manifold processes 

 used in, or applied to, the manufacture of fowling-pieces ; 

 or in pretending to disclose all the various tricks of the 

 trade, and to show how the latter may be certainly de- 

 tected by the purchaser. 



Were I to undertake the first, I should, in all proba- 

 bility, show myself incapable of the task ; for few amateur?, 

 even of those the best informed, are competent to describe, 

 3 



