66 MANUAL FOK YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



no person is likely to come in contact with their work, un- 

 less he casually visit the spot of their operations, and be 

 tempted of his own choice to purchase. It is needless, 

 therefore, to consider these. 



Below a hundred dollars I would counsel no man to 

 buy an imported gun. There is a sort of gun, manufac- 

 tured even by the best London makers, called a game- 

 keeper's gun, at 15 sterling, or 75 dollars, entirely plain, 

 without engraving or any external finish. The locks are 

 sound, well-working, and perfectly finished, though desti- 

 tute of course of the last exquisite sharpness, smoothness 

 and ring, which at once speak for the first-rate gun. The 

 barrels are stub-twist, and may be relied on for solidity, 

 safety, and excellent performance. I shot with one of 

 these guns, in 1849, during a tour on the Great Lakes, 

 and, though it had not certainly much beauty to brag of 

 it executed beautifully and at long ranges, and was pro- 

 nounced by " Dincks," a very competent judge, the best 

 low-priced gun, and the cheapest gun, he ever saw. At 

 my advice, a small number of these guns was sent out 

 hither, for sale, at the lowest possible price ; that is to say 

 without any importer's profit, commissions or the like ; and 

 those of them which found purchasers, gave the greatest 

 satisfaction. Their unpretending appearance, however, 

 the incompetency of buyers to distinguish their real su- 

 periority to the lacquered trash of the Birmingham hard- 

 waremen, and above all, the interested opposition of the 

 vendors of such trumpery who caused them to be written 

 down by hireling scribblers, principally in the country 

 presses, though some of their lucubrations found their way 



