FOREST SPORTS. 
225 
Immense speed can be made on the snow-shoe by the prac¬ 
tised runner; I have heard the rate of a famous Indian, when 
at his full lope on favorable ground, accounted as equal to seven 
or eight miles the hour, and this pace maintainable—to coin a 
word for the nonce !—for half a day, or better. 
The best weapon for this sport is the rifle ; and I cannot too 
strongly urge upon all amateur sportsmen the immense supe¬ 
riority, as a sporting implement, for quick shooting at game in 
motion, and especially in thick covert, of the comparatively 
short large-bored piece, carrying a ball, certainly not smaller 
than 32, but 16 is far better, to the pound, stocked after the man - 
ner of an ordinary fowling-piece , and fired direct from the 
shoulder, to the long, heavy, ill-balanced, small-bored rifles, with 
a peaked heel-plate, which are ordinarily used in America. 
However excellent these may be for very close practice, at 
very small marks, such as Squirrels, or the like, or for target 
practice from a rest, or with deliberate aim, they are utterly in¬ 
effective for rapid snap-shooting at animals in quick motion ; 
while for long shots, across wind especially, the smallness and 
lightness of their metal causes the balls to be blown many inches, 
sometimes even feet, to leeward. 
Another objection is, that their pea-bullets have neither the 
weight nor the force sufficient to make the hones crack, though 
they may make the fur fly ; and that the small orifice made by 
these little missiles, will often, especially in fat animals, close so 
completely over them, as to prevent the flow of blood, which 
from an ounce-ball wound will speedily exhaust the quarry, and 
bring him to the ground. 
To shoot Deer, or large animals, with balls of 80, or even 120 
to the pound, is an act of wanton barbarity, as the stricken 
quarry will run for leagues with his death-wound from so paltry 
a missile, and the hunter shall lose his labor. 
The best sporting implement of this kind in the world, is un¬ 
doubtedly Purdey’s double-barrelled rifle; and, although the 
use of these was at first ridiculed by the hunters and trappers 
of the West, its superior execution and utility is now fully ad- 
VOL. II. 15 
