PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
‘ CHAPTER I. 
To lay down rules by the observance of which the ma- 
jority of bad shots may become experts is sufficiently easy ; 
but the trouble is, however great the determination to fol- 
low the given precepts, so soon as game is flushed the in- 
structions are thrown to the winds, and bang, bang go 
both barrels, with the same hurried unsuccessful results as 
previously. That more birds are missed by shooting too 
quickly, I assert as indisputable; and knowing this to be 
the case, why will it continue to be practiced? For this 
reason, that many are so fearfully nervous that for the mo- 
ment they have no control of their actions, or they are so 
timid that although firing off their gun they consider a 
duty, they believe the sooner it is got through with the 
better: neither of such pupils is ever likely to become a 
crack shot. I have a friend who is, without exception, the 
most unlucky shot-—I was going to say the worst —that 
ever I met. We at one period very frequently shot to- 
gether, and each evening, on our tramp home, he was cer- 
tain to tell me that he had discovered the reason for his ap- 
parent want of skill. How various the causes attributed, 
would be beyond possibility of enumeration; however, he 
always devised some means of counteracting them—viz., 
by stuffing cotton in his ears, not to hear the spring of the 
game! to wear a loose eollar, so that he could the better 
