30 EQUIPMENT. 



shot will kill farther. Now, on asking their rea- 

 sons for this belief, several have told me — and, 

 indeed, one late author has published the same 

 theory — that a small shot striking a bird, say 

 through the lungs or stomach, makes but a small 

 hole, which closes after the passage of the shot, 

 thus preventing the escape of blood, and causing 

 the bird to die quickly from internal hemorrhage; 

 whereas a larger shot striking in the same place 

 leaves an open hole, through which the blood 

 runs freely, and the bird flies on frequently out 

 of sight, or until it dies from sheer loss of blood. 



My own idea is that fully nine-tenths of the 

 game that dies solely from loss of blood or inter- 

 nal hemorrhage is never recovered by the sports- 

 man ; and though I admit they die more quickly 

 when bleeding internally than if the blood flows 

 outwardly, yet from the wound made by the 

 larger shot, as more of the veins or minute 

 blood-vessels are severed, more blood would escape, 

 and the choking from internal hemorrhage would 

 ensue full as quickly though a portion of the blood 

 should pass through to the outside. 



It is by the severe shock or paralysis of the 

 nervous system more often than otherwise that 

 death from gunshot wounds is produced, and this 



