228 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
at a short distance, rather than to rapid sighting, and quick 
firing. In the same manner, the difficulty of procuring ammu¬ 
nition, and of carrying a sufficiency of lead for the moulding of 
large bullets in distant and sparsely settled districts, afar from 
shops and civilization, have led to the adoption of the small 
bore and tiny bullets, by which a few ounces of powder, and a 
single pound of lead, may be made to subsist a hunter during a 
whole year in the wilderness. 
The same cause has led to the habit of stealing warily upon 
the game, and never firing a shot until certain of a close and 
covered aim. This practice, however, like the rifle formed with 
regard to it, will not be found effective on the great open plains 
of the West, nor with any animal which must be hunted down 
by speed of foot, and shot while at speed, in lieu of being marked 
down by wary ambush ; nor is this a mere theory of mine, for 
throughout the South and South West, wherever the rifle is 
used in preference to the gun and buck-shot, the yager , as it is 
called, or short-barrelled, large-bored piece, is universally pre¬ 
ferred ; and on the prairies the ponderous, unwieldy, long pea 
rifle, is disused,—guns carrying less than thirty-five or forty to 
the pound being, as I am informed, at a discount. 
I am not aware what weapon the United States Voltigeurs 
and Mounted Rifles carry, but I presume it is a plainly-stocked 
piece, without the crescent-shaped heel-plate ; otherwise I can¬ 
not conceive the possibility of attaining any rapidity or regula¬ 
rity in platoon or volley firing. But enough of the rifle,—and 
these remarks will be all that are required on this subject, being 
equally applicable to every species of hunting of which I shall 
treat, but the more particularly so with the larger and more 
savage quadrupeds. 
The next question to be considered is the sportsman’s dress ; 
and as it is in the coldest weather only that this sport is pur¬ 
sued, warmth is a sine qua non , while any apparatus of great 
coats, or the like, is so inconvenient and unwieldy, that it can¬ 
not be adopted in the field. 
On the whole, the best rig is a red flannel shirt, buckskin 
