66 MANUAL FOE YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



no person is likely to come in contact with their work, un- 

 less he casually visit the spot of their operations, and be 

 tempted of his own choice to purchase. It is needless, 

 therefore, to consider these. 



Below a hundred dollars I would counsel no man to 

 buy an imported gun. There is a sort of gun, manufac- 

 tured even by the best London makers, called a game- 

 keeper's gun, at £15 sterling, or 75 dollars, entirely plain, 

 without engraving or any external finish. The locks are 

 sound, well-working, and perfectly finished, though desti- 

 tute of course of the last exquisite sharpness, smoothness 

 and ring, which at once speak for the first-rate gun. The 

 barrels are stub-twist, and may be relied on for solidity, 

 safety, and excellent performance. I shot with one of 

 these guns, in 1849, during a tour on the Great Lakes, 

 and, though it had not certainly much beauty to brag of 

 it executed beautifully and at long ranges, and was pro- 

 nounced by " Dincks," a very competent judge, the best 

 low-priced gun, and the cheapest gun, he ever saw. At 

 my advice, a small number of these guns was sent out 

 hither, for sale, at the lowest possible price ; that is to say 

 without any importer's profit, commissions or the like ; and 

 those of them which found purchasers, gave the greatest 

 satisfaction. Their unpretending appearance, however, 

 the incompetency of buyers to distinguish their real su- 

 periority to the lacquered trash of the Birmingham hard- 

 waremen, and above all, the interested opposition of the 

 vendors of such trumpery — who caused them to be written 

 down by hireling scribblers, principally in the country 

 presses, though some of their lucubrations found their way 



