THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 71 



cartridges for Lang's breech-loading double-barrels cer- 

 tainly are not to be found growing on thorn bushes ? Is 

 he to carry with him, in heaven's name, a hundred barrels 

 of cartridges on camel-back, or mule-back, or his own 

 back, with the consciousness that these indispensables, 

 once used up, his double-barrel is of less use even than a 

 broomstick ? 



The want of simplicity is enough to ruin any inven- 

 tion ; and this, it needs no prophet to foretell, must be 

 inoperative, except as a pretty plaything to be used at 

 home. 



The gain, moreover, I should fancy from his drawing, 

 is next to nothing; and I should judge that a quick smart 

 loader would recharge both his barrels by the muzzle with 

 a good flask and Sykes's patent-lever pouch, and cap them 

 in the ordinary way, while his comrade is turning the crank, 

 withdrawing the old cartridges, replacing the new which 

 by the way can only be done correctly under the eye, and 

 hardly by touch and bringing back the barrels to their 

 place. 



The advantage in point of time can be scarcely, then, 

 worthy of notice ; and no gain of time is in truth requi- 

 site, in the case of shot guns. They can be loaded, fired, 

 reloaded and retired, in the ordinary way, quite as rapidly 

 as for ordinary purposes can ever be needed ; and this 

 every one knows, who has ever been present at an English 

 battue, or has been obliged to sit down, as I have, a dozen 

 times at least in my life, in the middle of a snipe-meadow, 

 or of scattered bevies of quail, to let my barrels cool, 

 before I have dared to reload them. 



