142 THE OPEN AIR 



the single-barrel, and never could hit them so well 

 with a double. Either at starting, before the snipe 

 got into his twist, or waiting till he had finished that 

 uncertain movement, the single-barrel seemed to drop 

 the shot with certainty. This was probably because 

 of its perfect natural balance, so that it moved as if 

 on a pivot. With the single I had nothing to manage 

 but my own arms ; with the other I was conscious 

 that I had a gun also. With the single I could kill 

 farther, no matter what it was. The single was 

 quicker at short shots — snap-shots, as at rabbits 

 darting across a narrow lane ; and surer at long shots, 

 as at a hare put out a good way ahead by the dog. 



For everything but the multiplication of slaughter 

 I liked the single best; I had more of the sense of 

 woodcraft with it. When we consider how helpless 

 a partridge is, for instance, before the fierce blow of 

 shot, it does seem fairer that the gunner should have 

 but one chance at the bird. Partridges at least might 

 be kept for single -barrels : great bags of partridges 

 never seemed to me quite right. Somehow it seems 

 to me that to take so much advantage as the double- 

 barrel confers is not altogether in the spirit of sport. 

 The double-barrel gives no '' law." At least, to those 

 who love the fields, the streams, and woods for their 

 own sake, the single-barrel will fill the bag sufficiently, 

 and will permit them to enjoy something of the zest 

 men knew before the invention of weapons not only 

 of precision but of repetition : inventions that rendered 

 them too absolute masters of the situation. A single- 

 barrel will soon make a sportsman the keenest of 

 shots. The gun itself can be built to an exquisite 



