THE GUN, AUD HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 71 



cartridges for Lang's breech-loading double-barrels cer- 

 tainly are not to be found growing on thorn bushes ? Is 

 he to carry with him, in heaven's name, a hundred barrels 

 of cartridges on camel-back, or mule-back, or his own 

 back, with the consciousness that these indispensables, 

 once used up, his double-barrel is of less use even than a 

 broomstick ? 



The want of simplicity is enough to ruin any inven- 

 tion ; and this, it needs no prophet to foretell, must be 

 inoperative, except as a pretty plaything to bo used at 

 home. 



The gain, moreover, I should fancy from his drawing, 

 is next to nothing ; and I should judge that a quick smart 

 loader would recharge both his barrels by the muzzle with 

 a good flask and Sykes's patent-lever pouch, and cap them 

 in the ordinary way, while his comrade is turning the crank, 

 withdrawing the old cartridges, replacing the new — which 

 by the way can only be done correctly under the eye, and 

 hardly by touch — and bringing back the barrels to their 

 place. 



The advantage in point of time can be scarcely, then, 

 worthy of notice ; and no gain of time is in truth requi- 

 site, in the case of shot guns. They can be loaded, fired, 

 reloaded and refired, in the ordinary way, quite as rapidly 

 as for ordinary purposes can ever be needed ; and this 

 every one knows, who has ever been present at an English 

 battue, or has been obliged to sit down, as I have, a dozen 

 times at least in my life, in the middle of a snipe-meadow, 

 or of scattered bevies of quail, to let my barrels cool, 

 before I have dared to reload them. 



