THE RIFLE AND THE SPY-GLASS. 7 



In travelling this distance he twice fell down and laid 

 for some time, and eventually we saw him hide in a 

 hole, where in all probability he died. As the forest 

 adjoining was rented by gentlemen we did not know, we 

 felt bound, with great regret, for fear of spoiling their 

 sport, to leave him to his fate. The day following this 

 mishap, a long shot at about one hundred and eighty 

 yards presenting itself at a stag running across the 

 shooter, the bullet oddly enough struck exactly the 

 same place as in the stag just mentioned as escaping 

 from a wound with a solid one ; but in this latter case 

 when the stag fell he was quite powerless to rise 

 again, the hollow bullet having severed the arteries in 

 all directions, and causing half-a-dozen internal wounds 

 for the one of the solid bullet ; and these two shots well 

 exemplify the difference of the power and shock of 

 the two projectiles ; and as the bullet in each case was 

 placed some eighteen inches behind the heart, they also 

 most clearly showed the writer he was not shooting far 

 enough in front of running deer. 



To put a wounded stag out of his misery a solid 

 bullet should be used ; with regard to this style of 

 coup de grace, the writer holds it far more merciful and 

 much quicker to put a bullet through a wounded 

 animal's neck, than to go through the struggling oper- 

 ation of one of the party holding the horns and the 

 other cutting the throat. It is much the best plan to 

 use the rifle, unless, and which is very seldom the case, 

 there are other deer at hand which have not heard the 

 first shot and might be disturbed by a second one. 



The length of the '450 express rifle barrel varies 



