54^ FOREST, FIELD, AND PRAIRIE. 



iiig a no z of the proportions ; load some shells with your standard 

 charge of powder ; patch the bullets carefully, wetting the patch 



The use of hardened balls and the advantages to be derived from them, is a 

 much more .omplex subject than would seem apparent a;, first sig'ht. A promi- 

 nent English writer states, ** that a hardened ball in striking a bone, when prop- 

 erly made, should flatten against the bone (of the animal) without boring through 

 it, while at the same time it must retain enough of its round form to obviate any 

 chance of the increasing distance offered to the larger surface stopping its way, 

 and therefore preventing its penetrating far enough." Here then are two difficul- 

 ties, whicb apparentiy militate against one another, the ball must crush the bone, 

 and still have power sufficient to seek a vital point further on. We think this 

 most intelligent writer overlooks somewhat the important subjects of range and 

 velocity, which we think are vital to the subject. If it be smashing of the bones 

 which is required, we should suppose that a hardened ball, shot at close range, 

 with its high velocity, would least accomplish the purpose desired, for it is at a 

 close range only that elephants, lions and tigers are shot. The advantage to be 

 derived from a hard ball in breaking bones, or stunning the animals which it 

 strikes, would then we suppose be best effected at a slow velocity. 



A curious question entering here, is that of the vitality of animals, or the 

 lasting powers they possess to resist when seriously wounded. The Cervi readily 

 succumb, while the difficulty of killing a member of the feline race has passed 

 into a proverb. This distinction of the staying power may even be found in 

 m.an, for it is a well known fact that an Anglo-Saxon is twice as hard to kill as a 

 Chinese. Hard balls are useful in the two extreme cases, where the bony portion 

 of the animal is in large proportion to the fleshy case of the animal, as in the 

 moose and eastern buffalo, and of course, where the bones are covered with a huge 

 mass of flesh, as in the elephant. For lions and tigers, hardened bullets are not 

 as useful as the ordinary ball. 



Certainly the great object in using any projectile is to have the animal struck 



by it to die as quickly as possible. Perhaps the most unsatisfactory thing we 



know of, is to shoot a moose, and certain that he is wounded mortally, to be 



forced to follow him a whole day before finding him dead. In shooting lions and 



'tigers, of course the preservation of the hunter's own life is to be thought of. 



Explosive Shells. — ^The question of hard balls is likely to be silenced shortly 

 and forever by the use of explosive shells, an instrument first introduced by 

 Colonel Jacob, of the East India ser\'ice, thirty years ago. To-day, sportsmen in 

 the East are using them against the large game, and with notable success. We 

 should think our friends in California might use explosive shells most advanta- 

 geously in their combats with the grizzly bear. This explosive bullet, which is a 

 combination of a rim-fire metallic cartridge, with a hollow bullet, was invented 

 independently by General M. C. Meigs, U. S. A., and L. H. Mead, jr., U. S. A., 

 now deceased. L. H. Mead says : 



" We carried the shells in Colorado, California, and Central America, and 

 finding them a sure thing for ordinary game, had them manufactured by the 

 Union Metallic Cartridge Company, at Bridgeport. Lieutenant Carpenter, of 

 the Hayden exploring expedition, while in Sierra Madre, fired «. .50 calibre, sev- 

 enty grain United States Government cartridge at a thousand pound grizzly, in a 

 Ri^mington rifle, at one hundred and forty yards range. The four hundred and 

 fifty grain ballet containing a .33 calibre long pistol cartridge with seven grains 



