SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 287 



loaded barrel, and in case the other charge should 

 go off you would lose the end of your thumb, perhaps, 

 but save most of your fingers. 



From the foregoing rules, which apply mainly to 

 muzzle-loaders, it will be seen how much safer are 

 breech-loaders ; with them the entire charge can be 

 withdrawn on entering a house or getting into a 

 wagon, and there is absolutely no dauger to fingers 

 or thumb in the process of loading. And in carrying 

 the weapon on long tramps in the woods, where it 

 is frequently removed from boat to shoulder, from 

 shoulder to boat, and from wagon to case, and when 

 it has to be ready at any instant, with the muzzle- 

 loader the only possible precaution is to leave the 

 nipples without caps, which are to be carried in the 

 vest pocket, and must be removed after every vain 

 alarm ; while with the breech-loader, the charge 

 itself is not inserted till needed. 



With these few suggestions, which are applicable 

 not merely to the kinds of sport treated of in this 

 volume, but to every species of shooting, we leave 

 the young sportsman to his own resources and to the 

 knowledge that he will acquire in the field, hoping 

 that he may find something in them that will aid him 

 to kill reasonably often the game he points at, and 

 to avoid the dreadftil misfortune of injming a friend 

 or companion. 



