92 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
click, which will cut off the communication, and, if the 
flask be a good one, will obviate the possibility of an ex- 
plosion. 
I will here observe that Dixon’s patent flask, with the 
steel spring on the outside of the top, is the only one 
which ought to be used by any person who regards safety, 
convenience, and rapidity of loading. 
In the little cut above one of these implements is shown, 
of the best construction, together with a double patent 
lever shot-pouch of Sykes’s patent, also manufactured by 
Dixon of Sheffield, and sold by all considerable gunsmiths. 
I esteem it preferable for convenience and quickness to 
any belt or contrivance I have ever tried, both for carry- 
ing shot and loading. The best material for the powder 
flask I hold to be tin, made in two halves, and soldered 
along the edges. It not unfrequently happens, where ex- 
plosions take place in the horn, either from defect in the 
mechanism, or from carelessness in the loader’s pouring 
the powder into the barrel without cutting off the com- 
