216 



barrel*, should by all means acquire the habit 

 of taking aim, like the skilful manager of a 

 telescope, with both eyes open, and with no 

 further alteration of the features of the face 

 than that contraction of the eyebrow which 

 assists intensity of sight. A little practice will 

 render this quite easy: and the left eye will 

 thus become of more immediate use to mark, 

 on the instant, the struck or not-struck of a 

 bird in cover, and to spare the half-blind bungler, 

 after a squint-eyed shot across a hedge, some 

 loss of time in the moping search of nothing. 



I need not, I am persuaded, be at the expense 

 of argument to convince a pupil, that unless 

 the internal alarm on fire, and the apprehension 

 of recoil be sufficiently subdued to admit of 

 his keeping a tolerable hold of the flight, during 

 the prolongation of a moment at the instant of 

 pull upon the trigger, his shot must become a 

 mere casualty ; and how much it behoves him, 

 therefore, to acquire a command over himself 

 at this important moment. The obvious method 

 of accomplishing this, by an emboldened fami- 

 liarity with the action of his gun, from the snap 

 with a driver up to effective shot, is here indi- 

 cated. Suffice it to add the means by which 



* See the chapter on Stocking. 



