THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 49 
times out of ten, the cause of missing; and, whether on 
the duelling ground, or in the sporting field, the bravest 
and coolest man will be a shade more hasty and excited, 
than in the shooting gallery or the target ground. There- 
fore, no hair-triggers for me ! 
Now, then, it has been shown briefly, and I trust com- 
prehensively, above, how to choose a gun in reference 
solely to its peculiar fitness and adaptation of form, length, 
weight, manageableness, &c., to the individual purchaser, 
wholly apart from its intrinsic goodness of metal, work- 
manship, finish or effectiveness. If it be of.such weight 
that he can handle it readily and rapidly, and can carry 
it without fatigue during a long and hot day’s shooting— 
if it come up truly and quickly to his eye—if its trigger 
yield to a pull which requires no jerk or effort, in the 
first instance, the gun may be said to suit the person. 
Of its intrinsic value much more remains to be said. 
I do not by any means propose, in this place, to follow 
the example of many of my predecessors in the composi- 
tion of works of this order, an example I think “more 
honored in the breach than the observance,” in attempting 
an elaborate description of the various kinds of metal, the 
varieties of workmanship, much less the manifold processes 
used in, or applied to, the manufacture of fowling-pieces ; 
or in pretending to disclose all the various tricks of the 
trade, and to show how the latter may be certainly de- 
tected by the purchaser. 
Were I to undertake the first, I should, in all proba- 
bility, show myself incapable of the task; for few amateurs, 
even of those the best informed, are competent to describe, 
8 
