A LONG-BARRELLED GUN. 207 



advantage of a favourable chance ; it is noticeable that 

 half the accidents happen with a strange gun. 



Shot plays curious freaks sometimes : I know a case 

 in which a gun was accidentally discharged in a dairy 

 paved as most dairies are with stone flags. The muzzle 

 was pointed downwards at the time — the shot struck the 

 smooth stone floor, glanced off and up, and hit another 

 person standing almost at right angles, causing a painful 

 wound. It is a marvel that more bird-keepers do not get 

 injured by the bursting of the worn-out firelocks used to 

 frighten birds from the seed. Some of these are not only 

 rusty, but so thin at the muzzle as almost to cut the hand 

 if it accidentally comes into contact with any force. 



A collection of curious old guns might be made in the 

 villages ; the flint-locks are nearly all gone, but there are 

 plenty of single-barrels in existence and use which were 

 converted from that ancient system. In the farmhouses 

 here and there may be found such a weapon, half a century 

 old or more, with a barrel not quite equal in length to the 

 punt-gun, but so long that, when carried under the arm of 

 a tall man, the muzzle touches the ground where it is 

 irregular in level. It is slung up to the beam across the 

 ceiling with leathern thongs — one loop for the barrel and 

 the other for the stock. It is still serviceable, having been 

 kept dry ; and the owner will tell you that he has brought 

 down pigeons with it at seventy yards. 



Every man believes that his particular gun is the best 



