MISCELLANEOUS HINTS. 117 



with this object in view a committee were ap- 

 pointed by the New York State Sportsmen's 

 Convention, held at Niagara Falls, to determine 

 upon a suitable scale, and submit it for adoption 

 to the various makers. This was done, and 

 though their scale was accepted and the shot 

 numbered accordingly by several leading manu- 

 facturers, yet the number of pellets contained 

 in the ounce of their several makes was found 

 to vary widely, which fact has given rise to 

 much heated discussion. To me uniformity seems 

 practically an impossibility ; for lead taken from 

 the same mine, and worked as nearly as may 

 be in the same manner, will frequently be 

 found to vary somewhat in density, owing to 

 several reasons — it may be to a slight change in 

 the degree of heat applied in some part of its 

 reduction or refining, or, possibly, to some pecu- 

 liar condition of the atmosphere. Then again, 

 as the shot are sifted or assorted, the pellets 

 which remain in a certain colander cannot be 

 of precisely the same size, and consequently the 

 numbers contained in separate ounces of the 

 same manufacture may also, and do, vary. For 

 instance, a No. 5 shot, which, according to the 

 scale, should be 1 ^ r of an inch in diameter, is, 



