50 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
perhaps to comprehend, the materials and mechanism of a 
first-rate gun; although they may be perfectly capable of 
deciding on the quality of the gun when manufactured. 
If I should succeed in explaining these matters correctly, 
it is still very certain that the best of such explanations 
convey but a limited degree of information to readers, and 
necessarily fail of enabling them to judge for themselves. 
I know few cases in which the old saying, “that a little 
knowledge is a dangerous thing,” is more justly evinced 
than this. A little knowledge will probably suffice to 
render the possessor of it satisfied of his own ability to 
choose for himself; and, rejecting the aid of experience, he 
will probably get cheated for his pains. 
It is, in fact, a very difficult task for any person, from 
inspection, to detect with absolute certainty the nature of 
the metal of which the barrels are composed. In old 
times horseshoe-nails, wrought into wire or ribbon form, 
and welded together, were the basis of what were then 
the best barrels, known as stub-twist. The use of horse- 
nails has latterly decreased, owing to the deterioration of 
the iron used in their formation ; and old carriage springs 
of wrought steel, mixed with Wednesbury iron, which is 
generally used and known in the trade as stub-iron, are 
now principally adopted for the manufacture of the best 
ordinary twisted barrels. ‘ Gunmakers themselves,” says 
an accurate and able English writer on field-sports, Stone- 
henge, in his manual of British Rural Sports, “are often 
deceived ; and therefore it is reasonable to suppose that 
né inspection, which an amateur can make, will detect the 
defect in the quality of the iron or workmanship. No one 
