104523 CURR ELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornelt University Libra The complete manual for young sportsmen: Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924016407664 A Ae wi Wh li jz fen = pan uf i Vy, THE COMPLETE MANUAL YOUNG SPORTSMEN: WITH DIREOTIONS FOR HANDLING THE GUN, THE RIFLE, AND THE ROD; THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING; THE BREAKING, MANAGEMENT, AND HUNTING OF THE DOG; THE VARIETIES AND HABITS OF GAME; RIVER, LAKE, AND SEA FISHING, ETO, ETO, ETO. PREPARED FOR THE INSTRUCTION AND USE OF THE YOUTH OF AMERICA. BY FRANK FORESTER, cpsevel, AUTUOR OF “THE FINLD SPORTS,” “FISH AND FISIIING,” ‘HORSES AND HORSE MANBHIP OF THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH PROVINCES OF NORTH AMERIOA,” ETO., ETC., ETO. NEW YORK: Ww. A. TOWNSEND & ADAMS, 1868. VL Enrenrep, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, By STRINGER & TOWNSEND, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. 333628 #5 S ADVERTISEMENT. Tue object of this volume is neither to super- sede the works which I have formerly put forth on American Field Sports and Fishing, nor yet to sup- ply any omission in their pages. In fact, it is neither an abridgment of pages heretofore written, nor a compendium of facts al- ready published ; nor yet is it entirely an indepen- dent work, on a different branch of the same sub- ject. It was found, or believed, to be the case, by the publishers of those works, which, I may be permit- ted to say, have found some favor in the eyes of the sporting world, that a volume of less ambitious style and less expensive form, taking up the subject more rudimentally, commencing actually ab initio, deal- ing more with the practice and less with the higher spirit of Field Sports, insisting less on the natural iv ADVERTISEMENT, history and general habits of the various species of game, and aiming more at teaching the tyro in the trade how to enter himself in his apprenticeship, and how to advance until he have raised himself to be a master of his guild, is called for by the rising generation ; and, with that view, they have intrust- ed to me the preparation of this manual. My previous works, on this and kindred topics, were intended rather for sportsmen, than for begin- ners ; this will take up the matter ab ovo. Much will be found in it, therefore, concerning the use of the various implements of the chase, the art of shooting animals on the wing, or otherwise, at speed, whether with shot or single ball, which were omitted as unnecessary, in foregoing works ; nor, I hope, will this matter, while it is essential to the new beginner, prove either useless or tedious to the mature sportsman ; the rather that it will em- body much new information concerning the im- proved science of projectiles, and several notices of arms not invented at the period when my older lucu- brations saw the light. The same observations will apply to what is to be found here written concerning dogs, concerning various species of game, concerning the proper mo- dus operandi. In some respects, I have seen cause to alter my opinions ; in some, the alteration of cir- cumstances has compelled an alteration in the ADVERTISEMENT. v course to be pursued ; for, of field sports, as of most other sublunary matters, it is true, especially in countries comparatively new, where population and cultivation are progressively increasing, and the wild animals of the chase proportionally on the decrease, that, Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis; and in the space which has elapsed since first I wrote on “the sports of the field,” in this country, there has been ample room for change, and change has not failed the occasion. To conclude, all that genuinely comes within the scope of the ‘‘ Sports of the Field,” especially as regards novices, will be touched upon summarily in this little work, which may, in some respects, be regarded as introductory, in a few, perhaps, as sup- plemental, to my more thorough and voluminous publications ; but must not be expected in any sort to supersede them, as their greater compass enables them to embrace fully many topics which are not, as indeed they need not to be, so much as men- tioned in the following pages. Tuer Cepars, 1856. TABLE OF CONTENTS, INTRODUCTION. Antiquity and origin of Field Sports, Wanting among the Israelites. In As- syria; in Persia; Royal Parks, or Paradises; in Greece; among the Ro- mans; the descent of the Norse races; the chase a northern passion; un- congenial to the Latin nations; universal among people of Norse origin; not notable in provincial Britain; imported by the early Saxons; ancient statutes ; increased after the Norman conquest; cruel game and forest laws; their relaxation; continuance of the taste among the English gentry; its effect on their character; New York prejudices ; modification of these; un- manliness of young men; public attention called to the want of relaxation; true sense of the word re-creation; present need of ve-creation; influence of field sports in soldiership; Balaklava and the trenches; a contrast; a recommendation; what I promise to my readers. ‘ pp. 17-33 THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. Shooting with gun or rifle the first of American Field Sports. Hunting, proper, little practised; severity of northern winters; the Washington and Mon- treal fox-hounds; fox-hunting in Maryland and Virginia; deer-hunting in the Carolinas and Georgia; bear-hunting in Mississippi and Arkansas; coursing deer in the prairie States; forest game not hunted, but stalked or driven; stable-stand and dog-draw ; ancient British and modern American hunting nearly identical; the cross-bow ; shooting, the first qualification of the American sportsman; dog management; wood-craft ; the crack shot; false sportsmen ; the fowling-piece; the percussion gun; the old flint and steel; their comparative advantages; flint and steel every where exploded; even in armies; the double gun; the perfection of shooting ; the single gun; the latter good for beginners; its weight; its comparative effect; its con- tinued service. The gun must be intrinsically good; must especially suit its owner. Why one gun suits, and another not; how to try if a gun suits or no. The trigger-pull; how to ascertain its force; the light pull; the heavy pull; the true power; cause of missed shots. The actual quality of guns; difficult to ascertain ; metal of which made; the common cl eap gun; how to procure a good gun; how a bad one; the flashy, cheap, sham gun; how a good judge judges; forged names of gunmakers; Birmingham, Ger- man, Belgian rubbish; best quality of barrels; various opinions on; my own taste; why; London makers; provincial do.; wholesale do. ; Ameri- ean do.; which the best; why so; comparative price of the best guns of each; recommendations, according to yalue. Double-barrels; revolving shot-guns; breech-loading do.; Lang’s patent gun; Perry’s patent do.; vill TABLE OF CONTENTS. good for duck-guns. Length, weight, and gauge of guns considered; the old system; the new system; Colonel Hawker’s system; the best general gun; its size and execution; what it will do; why I prefer it; short guns; where they fail; double-barrelled duck-guns; their size and service heavy single duck-guns; what they will do; what they will cost; how to choose a gun; the trials; closo shooting guns; scattering guns; cartridges ; charg- ing, and its effects; trial of duck-guns; what is a crack shot . 34-83 THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. The art once obtained, always available; once a master, always a master; with one system, with all systems; improves with improvement; three heads in the use of the gun: safety, effect, service; what is meant by safety; when aloaded gun may be called safe; always liable to casual discharge ; safety stops; why not useful; how to carry a loaded gun safely; how to carry the locks safely ; on the nipples; at half-cock; at full cock ; how to load safely ; powdcr-flask and shot-pouch; how to ram home; how to save a maimed hand; how to cap your piece; wadding; gunpowder; ducking powder; copper caps ; sizes of shot; a gun, how safe in a carriage ; how safe ina house ; idiotic accidents with loaded arms. The criminality of such accidents; the proper penalty for such; how motto draw one’s ramrod ; how not to test its being loaded ; how to blow one’s brains out. How tocleana gun; the effects of foulness ona gun: when most injurious. When tocleanagun; whoshould clean it; who not; to wash the barrels; to cleanse the barrels; to air the barrels; to dry rub the barrels; to clean externally; when not to clean the locks; why; to polish the stock; to put by the gun for the season. Per- cussion locks. When necessary to remove them. To take them off. Bar and back-action, How to dissect the lock. How to clean it; how to recon- struct it; how to preserve barrels when laid by. How to restore. Loon- skin oil. The rifle. The old-school rifle. Its gauge and length. Cause of its adoption and success. Infancy of the art. Its natural defects. Gradual improvements. The short yager rifle. The English double-barrelled sport- ing rifle. American rest and target-shooting, The two-grooved rifle. The Minie rifle. The Enfield rifle. Breech-loading arms. Perry's patent. Re- volvers and breech-loaders useless as shot-guns. Military revolvers; sport- ing do.; Colt’s patent; pistols; rifles; Porter's do.; military breech-load- ers; sporting do., rifles; Perry's arm; described; its qualities; its prinei- ple; Sharpe's arm; where and why defective; my own choice; single Tifles; English double rifles; how to choose a rifle. How far men can be taught to shoot by precept y . 84-127 HOW TO LEARN TO SHOOT. The great difficulty. The Oakleigh shooting code; how most men miss. Why they do so. Keep the eyelow. When a stock fits. The main point... My opinion of this. The art to be acquired. Common error in this country. Shooting too well sitting. What must be unlearned. Not so in Europe. Effect of this cause here. What makes the rifleman miss the flying shot. Mastery of the gun. Position for practice. To raise and cock; to lower and return to half cock. To shoot quick. .Both eyes open. Practice with caps only—with powder. Candle practice. Practice at a mark—without TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix shot. With shot. At small birds. To judge of errors, Allowance for ma- tion. Why necessary. How to acquire the trick. Practice for flying shots. For running shots. Physical disabilities. To learn rifle shooting. Disper- sion of a shot-charge. Directness of a ball. Necessity of perfect aim. Steadiness. Tow to take aim; rest-firing bad practice. Rifle clubs, Al- lowance for motion of objects, How to allow. For a cross wind—long ranges. Rifle shooting and shooting flying nearly incompatible; why so; shooting, riding, and to speak truth, must be learned—young 128-153 THE DOG. His use and qualities; kind usage of; cruelty to, exploded. House-dogs not good field-dogs; why. Intelligence; how cultivated. Punishment; when, and how, needed; in breaking; when broken; the whip—how to be used. kicking dogs—an infamy. Old dogs, when t» be flogged; when to be rated. Dinks and Mayhew. Food and condition. Various breeds of sporting dogs. Sporting authorities—Ilutchinson, Scropé, Colquhoun, Hawker. English- broke dogs. English-bred dogs. Russian setters Fs - 154-164 THE SETTER. His excellences, style, beauty, and courage. His temper. Compared with the pointer. Craven's opinion. My own opinion. In summer shooting; autumn shooting. Grouse shooting on the hills; on the prairies. Absurd plan for breeding setters. Pvinting, formerly an acquired trick, now an in- stinct, Backing the same, Whatisasetter? Classification of dogs. The spaniel; various breeds of—the Clumber—the King Charles—the New- foundland. First mention of setters. First breaking of spaniels to set. Setters, till of late, called spaniels. The English setter; his points, his qualities, his beauty. The Irish setter; his points, his color, his nose, his temper. The Russian setter; his points, his docility, his endurance, his eolor. Rare im America, “Old Charon.” Style and point of Russians. Range of setters. American dog-breakers—an error. Beating and quarter- ing. Duration of a dog. Dog poisoning in Jersey. Denks on the dog. Pointing vs. setting. Color of English Setters. The Webster setters. The Harewood setters. . 6 «© + + «© «© ¢ 165-187 THE POINTER. Nota natural dog. Original type of. The Spanish pointer. The improved English pointer. Two varieties. Best form. Excellences of. Defects of. Best for young sportsmen. Stonehenge. Points of pointers. Col- ors of pointers. French pointers. Double-nosed pointers. Temper of pointersy 3. we Se EE > «+ 188-197 THE COCKING-SPANIEL. Best for woodcock. Preferable for covert-shooting to pointers or set‘ers. Why so. For quail shooting. Difficulty of breaking cockers. Little used in Amer- ica. The Carrollton breed. The cocker. The springer. The Clumber. Their points, colors, and qualities; strongly recommended ‘ 198-208 x TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE WATER-SPANIEL. His blood in setters. Crosses always objectionable. This cross the least so. Two varieties, Points and colors. How to break him. How he should work; how retrieve. Where to shoot over him—for wild fowl—for snipe— for teal—for ruffed grouse. On the Canadian rice lakes 209-215 THE NEWFOUNDLAND RETRIEVER. On the Chesapeake. In Great Britain. In Newfoundland. The Labradorean the pure St. Johns; their unrivalled qualities; their sagacity . 216-221 THE HOUND. The Talbot. The Sleuth hound. Shakspeare’s type. Somerville’s type. In George III.’s time. Stonchenge’s views. The improved English hound. How bred. The southern hound. The American fox-hound. Color of hounds. English stag-hound; English fox-hound; English harrier; English beagle; Scottish deer-hound. How bred c . F ‘ 222-234 Kenvet Manacement.—Absurd dog-laws. Hydrophobia—dog-houses—clean- liness—beds—food—water—exercise—special remedies —for fleas and vermin —to harden the feet—for rheumatism. Lewis—Blaine—Youatt—Mayhew on the dog. The last preferred. Emetics—purgatives—for worms— for povi- son—for snake bites—for epileptic fits. Take advice . & 235-243 SNIPE SHOOTING. The English snipe—American do. Their time of arrival—differs in different States. Their seasons—-state of the ground. Their habits—in mild weather —in wintry weather—in hail storms—when breeding. Drumming of snipe —great flights of snipe—when to look for them in spring—where. Best weather for—in England—here. Peculiarity of snipe—how to beat for; with what dogs; Col. Hutchinson; fast dogs; steady dogs; the check cord; dogs racing; beating at a trot; the slow pointer; down wind; distance of shots; snipe shooting a knack; autumn shipe shooting; in Canada; cour- tesy; how to shoot in company; how to mark; twenty rules for young sportsmen. The Virginia rail. The pectoralsandpiper . . 244270 BAY SHOOTING. Wild fowl; none at this season; whither gone; bay snipe. The curlew. The common curlew. The Hudsonian curlew. The Esquimaux curlew. The golden plover; the black-bellied plover; the Bartramian sandpiper or upland plover; the godwits—marlin and ring-tailed marlin. Red-breasted sandpiper; red-backed sandpiper. The yellow-shanks tattler; tell-tale tat- tler. The willet. Mode of shooting them. Proper guns for. Anecdotes. End of season. f « i « Qt12981. WOODCOCK SHOOTING. In July—decrease of woodcock ; impropriety of law; unfitness of season; the old birds, the young do.; shall dogs flush? to keep dogs steady; spaniel TABLE OF CONTENTS. p40 work; snap shooting; summer woodcock; how they fly; how they alight ; to mark them; to shoot them; dry weather; wet weather; incorn; during their moult. Summer migration omy, er A . 282-295 GROUSE SHOOTING ON THE PRAIRIES. Six varieties of grouse—the ruffed grouse; the Canada grouse; the willow grouse; the geographical range of these three. Ilow to shoot the ruffed grouse; the Canada grouse and willow grouse rarely shot; the pinnated grouse or heath hen; the sharp-tailed grouse. Range of the pinnated grouse ; season for shooting; size of shot; shooting in August; in September; in October; pointers the best dogs; why so; best way to hunt; proper gun; how they fly; how to kill them; great sport soe ee 296-805 BIRDS NOT GAME. ‘The upland plover or Bartram’s sandpiper; where found; shooting them from chaises at Newport; stalking them; poor sport. Rail shooting. The sora Tail; where found; when; their habits; their flight; how to kill them; the proper gun; the proper charge; the landing net; reed birds; teal; galli- nules; anecdotes of shooting; slaughter, notsport . . . 806-815 AUTUMN SHOOTING. Quail; woodcock; ruffed grouse; large hare; smaller hare; morning shooting; when to start; how to beat for quail; the best ground; the point; the flush; single birds; the bevy; how and where to shoot; how to mark; how they fly; where they will alight; retention of scent; lurking; after- noon shooting; quail a fast flyer; rises behind. The ruffed grouse; his whirr on rising; autumn woodcock; his different flight now; his autumn lying grounds; the smaller hare; to hunt with beagles; habits of the hare ; best grounds; how to get shots; wheretohithim . . . 816-832 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. In Chesapeake Bay. The swan; the canvass-back; the red head; the scaup; the buffel-headed duck; the South-southerly; the ruddy duck; the wid- geon; the teal; English widgeon; English teal; J. C. Bell; Chesapeake Bay shooting; from the points; how fowl are missed; the best guns; allowance to be made for speed of flight. To tole wild fowl; how to shoot on the water; paddling up to fowl; proper powder; size of shot; goose shooting; from batteries; unsportsmanlike; Squam Beach; Barnegat; from boats in hassock ; over stools; calling fowl; coots; inland duck shooting; the mal- lard; the pin-tail duck; the green-winged teal; the blue-winged teal; the golden eye; the summer duck; the dusky duck; the winter duck; the trumpeter swan; the snow goose; the white-fronted goose; shooting on drowned meadows; by stream edges; on points of the great lakes; on the rice lakes; best guns for this sport. John Mullin’sguns . : 833-850 THE FOREST AND THE PLAINS. Moose; cariboo; elk; buffalo; antelope; bear; deer; turkey. How to follow trail; not to be learned from books; driving deer; chasing on horseback: xH TABLE OF CONTENTS. still hunting, or stalking; fire-hunting, not a sport. Quid of Quincy; deer over pointers; waiting at a stand; riding to hounds; still hunting; moose and cariboo, on snow-shoes; stalking buffalo; riding to buffalo; shooting from the saddle; where to plant the ball; what sized balls; sporting Tifles; how stocked; how sighted; always reload at once; turkey hunting ; witha eall; over beagles; true sport: hip ; ee 361-362 GAME FISH. RIVER FISH AND FISHING, Stonehenge’s manual; American fishes. The salmon; the sea trout; the com- mon trout; the lake trout; the siskawit; the maskalonge; the pickerel; .the chub, roach, and dace; the carp; the bass; the striped bass; the black bass ; the rock bass; the growler; the pike-perch; the perch; the sunfish; the eel. The line, reel, and hook; reel lines; silk and hair; Indian weed; silk; hair; reels; the foot length; ” English, Scotch and Irish hooks; floats; sinkers; swivels ¢ ar lg A ‘ * s 363-879 5 379 Natural snp Grounp Barts.—The earth-worm; dew-worm ; marsh-worm ; tag-tail; brandling; red-worm; shrimps; cockchafers; beetles; grasshop- pers; moths; ephemera; caddises; humble bees; gentles; salmon roe; shad roe; smelt roe; shrimp paste; bread paste; ground bait; fish bait; dead fish ; spinning ; ite with the a hook; to os bait fish. Live bait. oon 879-393, Tux Rov.—The general rod; the fly-rod . kw ae ARTIFICIAL Barr anp Fires.—How to tie flies. List of vhiicainas trout flies ; salmon flies; the landing net, gaff, &e,&e . . - «+ 898-405 Bait Fisninc.—For minnows and small fish 7 e a 406, 407 Carp Fisnine.—Best rod, line, &e., &c.; ground baits; baits; season; method o ‘ a fi ‘ m ‘ 2 407-409 Perc Fisnine.—For small ones; hooks; baits; large fish; with the minnow; roving; spinning; the gorge; the method . a o 3 i 409-413 PicKEREL Fisnine.—The tackle; the rod; the reel; the line; the baits; the snap; the gorge; to spin; to bait; the season; to throw; to strike; to play; to kill; to land; to extract the hooks. The snap-bait; how to strike with it; the gorge hook; least cruel; tackle for gorge trolling; how to cast; how to strike; how 10 remove the bait; the spoon . 413-422 Bass Fisnine.—Various methods of; the striped bass; will take real or artificial squid; artificial salmon fly; may be taken by spinning, trolling, or bottom fishing; shad roe in spring. Black and rock bass of the lakes, The ibis fly; trolling; the spoon. The growler and pike perch, taken with the craw fish ‘ ie as aa Ce ne, ne on 8 5 428 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xl Eet Fisnmyc.—The ledger line; float line; night line; bobbing; trimmers; sniggling; eel-spears. Live fish or worm baits. How to bait the hooks. Ss Where to fish fur eels; how to strike them 4 ef i 424-423 Bortrom Fisnine ror Common Trout, LAKE Trovt, anp Sea Trout.—The rod; the casting line; the gut bait and tackle. The best baits, and how to bait with them. The minnow; the devil-bait. The season of tront; the best water; how to cast and play the worm; how to strike; caterpillars; grubs; salmon roe; how to use dead and live minnows. How to spin; Walton's, Stoddart’s, and Hawker's theory . ce 498-435, TROLLING For Lake Trout.—Order of description. The rod; the reel; the line; the train of hooks. The bait and flies; the bait and kettle; the boat and oarsman; how to strike the fish a oe » «485-443 NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLY-FISHING. ‘Where practised; the difference between the two . - « 444, 445 APPARATUS FOR DIPPING AND Wurprinc.—The rod for dipping; the fly-rod, line, and reel; the flies; how to cast; from the left shoulder; the figure of 8; how to play the fly ‘ < os » « 445-452 Trovt Fisntnc.—The two-handed rod; the professed fly-fisher; the practical fily-fisher; how to fish any water; how to throw the flies; how to strike; _ how to play and kill a < Fi 452-457 Satwon Fisminc.—The tackle; the salmon-rod; the salmon-line; the flies; how to cast; how to choose flies; where to cast for fish. Cast from the left shoulder, sometimes the reverse. Length of line; Mr. Stoddart’s rule. How to work the fly on the water. Salmon less scary than trout; to strike the salmon; to play the salmon; one third of fish hooked escape; size and power of fish; Mr. Stoddart’s rule for pen : aia ee how to use the gaff; how to kill your fish ‘ 7 45T-A46T SEA FISHING. List of game sea-fish. Weak fish; tackle, baits, and places for; king fish; tackle, baits, and places for; black fish; tackle, baits, and places for; sheep’s-head ; tackle, baits, and places for; blue fish; ee and squidding, Three tables of instruction for sea fishing. C 468-475 Appenpix A.—Mullin’s New York fowling pieces and prices; table of strength ofgunmetals . 2 < . S - 476 AppEenDIx B.—Trimble’s imported duck guns, Baltino--. tle - 478 APPENDIX C.—Apparatus for artificial fly making . ay ye a ~ 479 Apprnprx D,—Ballard’s breech-loading sporting rifle and army carbine . 481 Hist of Allustrations, ORIGINALLY DESIGNED. OR ADAPTED AND DRAWN ON WOOD BY THE AUTHOR. POINTER AND DEAD QUAIL, . 3 s . Frowmsprece. ILLUSTRATED TITLE, F ‘5 3 ; ; : GUN AND BASKETS, : 2 3 : : 5 T RED DEER ANTLERS, . ; 5 ‘ . ‘ ‘ 17 ELK ANTLERS AND DOUBLE GUN, . , . . a4 QUAIL SHOOTING, : P F : ‘ - : 84 SHOT POUCH AND FLASK, : F : . ‘ 92 PERRY'S PATENT RIFLE, _ . . 5 3 F P t19 BEVY OF QUAIL RUNNING, . é : : . 128 DEAD QUAIL, : : 5 ‘ f m 2 158 GROUP OF DOGS, . J j 3 : 3 . 154 SETTER AND PRAIRIE COCK, : ‘ ‘ ' é 165 THE RUFFED GROUSE, . ‘ ‘i : $ ‘ 187 POINTERS—TOHO! : : 3 ; : A , 188 FOX-HOUNDS RUNNING, . , : . : ‘ 197 COCKER AND WOODCOCK, . . : F : 198 HARES FEEDING, . : i ; z 208 WATER-SPANIEL AND MALLABD, . : : 209 NEWFOUNDLAND RETRIEVER AND CANVASS-BACK, . 216 QUAIL RUNNING, j ‘ a : : i 221 DEER GREYHOUND, ; ; ; : : 222 A MAD DOG ON THE MARCH, 4 3 ‘ 5 4 285 AMERICAN SNIPE, . : : : : : P As VIRGINIA RAIL, . : : 3 - . 3 . 269 THE CURLEW, . : : . : e . . 271 THE GOLDEN PLOVER, e F ; - . ‘ 214 SNIPE-PITCHING, . . . . . . . 281 . xvV1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. WOODCOCK SHOOTING, Z ‘ , ‘ 3 : 282 GROUSE ON THE WING, . : x ; : 296 THE GALLINULE, : : : i ‘ * 306 CANADA HARE, é : ‘ ‘ i x 315 AMERICAN SWAN, : i : - ‘ 333 ENGLISH WIDGEON, F 3 % . : 385 AMERICAN WILD GOOSE, . : : ‘: . 5 841 AMERICAN TEAL, . ‘ : ‘: < ‘ : 347 AMERICAN ELK, ‘ ‘ : é : 5 : 851 AMERICAN DEER, . 3 : 2 F : 859 PLATE OF TROUT FLIES, . f ‘ ‘ , 360 RIVER SCENE, . : : : j ‘ : e 368 THE SALMON, F a os Z ‘ : 365 THE SUNFISH, . . ‘ . > e 4 2 873 THE REEL, is . . ‘ ‘ ‘ 875 GORGE. HOOK AND BAIT, . ‘ ‘ 3 3 - 391 GREEN DRAKE, TROUT FLY, P : . 405 LONG ISLAND PICKEREL, 3 ‘ ‘ ; 406 THE CARP, ee -% : : A 3 ‘ A 407 GROUP OF PERCH, . . ‘ ‘ : ‘ 409 THE PICKEREL, 3 5 P ‘ ¥ : 418 THE EEL, ‘ ‘ : : ; j ‘ 404 TRAIN OF TROUT-TROLLING HOOKS, . ‘ : ‘ 489 THE NEW YORK SHINER, : : : 7 ‘ 440 ROD, BAIT-KETTLE, AND TROUT, . 2 ‘ F . 443 STRIKING A TROUTIN A RAPID, . - 3 ‘ 444 THE BROOK TROUT, . ‘ i - ‘3 ‘ 453 STRIKING A TROUTIN A POOL,. . ‘ ‘ ‘ . 487 DRYING FISHING-NETS, ‘ ‘ F ‘ 468 FISHING SLOOP, . . . . ‘ ° . 472 i ey “ ¥ Joungy Sportsmen. X ey Wy Wi Mi wae aM INTRODUCTION. Ir is not known, probably not now to be discovered, at what period in the history of man, the pursuit of wild animals—which was originally undertaken by the semi- barbarous tribes as a means of procuring animal food, or for protection against formidable carnivora, which threat- ened either their own existence or that of their flocks and herds, as they gradually adopted stationary homes and pastoral habits—began to be regarded asa sport. But from a very remote period of antiquity such has undoubt- edly been the case; and so universally diffused in all countries, so generally implanted in all hearts, does this passion now exist, that we may assume it as certain, that 18 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. so soon as hunting ceased to be a laborious and painful necessity, obligatory on the nomadic tribes for the support of life, it came to be followed as a sport, to be the delight of the warrior nobles, and, as game gradually became scarce and rare, to be regarded as the privileged preroga- tive of the crown. In the Bible, it is true, there is little mention of hunt- ing, either as a method of procuring meat, or as a pursuit of pleasure. Nimrod, the son of Cush, we are told, indeed, was a mighty hunter before the Lord, but the probability of the case would point to him as a destroyer of savage beasts, like Hercules and Theseus in Hellenic fable, rather than as one, With hound and horn his way who took To drive the fallow deer; even if we do not regard him, in the wider light, as a hunter not of quadrupeds but of men, by the chase of whom “he began to be a mighty one in the earth.” Esau, again, we read of, somewhat as an exception among the pastoral people, over whom he was born a leader—although, partly in consequence of his addiction to this pursuit, which with him clearly must have been a sport rather than an occupation, he lost his hereditary title—in the light, probably, of the first authenticated hunter of the deer. There are, however, many natural reasons, among which not the least is the sterile, rocky and rugged face of the country which they inhabited, why the children of Israel should never have acquired a taste for, or proficiency in, field sports, The horse, whose plia- INTRODUCTION. 19 ble pasterns and delicate hoofs were ill adapted to the craggy hill-sides and rocky roads of Palestine, was pro- hibited by the great legislator cf the people of the Lord; and his place was filled by the stiff-jointed, stubborn, long- enduring ass, between whom and the chase there is the least imaginable connection. To the Israelites, as to many oriental peoples, the dog was an unclean animal; his name a reproach, and himself, instead of the best servant and domestic friend of man, the very outcast and pariah of creation. Lastly, owing to the strictness of the Levitical prohibitions, many of the chief animals of the chase, as the hare, the coney, the wild boar, and not a few of the choi- cest game birds, were forbidden as articles of food to the chosen people. The means, and inducements, to carry on hunting to any profitable or pleasurable extent, seem, there- fore, to have been, alike, wanting to the Israelites; nor, un- der these circumstances, can it be a matter of surprise that it was little, if at all, practised among them. In the other great kingdoms of the East, however, from the earliest ages, hunting and hawking were practised on the largest and most royal style by the monarchs and their chosen nobles. The noble sculptures recently disinterred at Khorsa- bad, in the vicinity of Mosul, and the ruins of Nineveh, contemporaneous with the events described in Holy Writ, abound in delineations of this regal mimicry of war. The histories of the Median, Persian, and Assyrian empires are filled with allusions to the eager spirit of sportsmanship with which the chase was prosecuted at a time, when, “ to speak the truth, to ride, and to shoot” were esteemed the 20 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. brightest educational gems in a Persian prince’s: diadem. We learn from Xenophon, soldier, hunter, philosopher, historian, that wherever, on the line of the long march of the Ten-thousand from Sardis up to Babylon, there was found a royal residence, it was accompanied by a great pleasure park and preserve of wild animals, some of them the savage carnivora, which Cyrus, he says, hunted on horseback, when he desired to take exercise. It is remark- able, moreover, that the name rapadecos—by no means a word of common occurrence in the Greek language, nor, so far as I remember, ever used of any enclosed ground within the confines of Greece proper, which is invariably applied to these pleasure parks maintained for hunting purposes—is identical with the word Paradise, otherwise rendered Garden of Eden, in its primary terrestrial signi- fication, which we have transferred to the seat of celestial beatitude and repose hereafter. The Greek and Roman writers, both in verse and prose, abound with allusions to this heroic pursuit and passion, which is attributed especially to their most favor- ite and famous demigods. The legends of the Nemean lion, the Caledonian boar, the tragical hunting of Acteon, the tales of Cephalus and Procris, of the wild Thessalian Centaurs, who nursed the martial vigor of the young Achilles on the marrow of hunted bears and lions; of Pheedra, Atalanta, Adonis the beloved of Venus, and above all Diana, the huntress queen, with her attendant train of nymphs, are familiar to all, and point evidently to a period, when, in the intervals of war and warlike forays, the chase was the daily delight and occupation of the patriarchal § INTRODUCTION. 21 hero-kings and their rude aristocracies, who held their ancient sway over the scattered Argive or Ionic tribes, from sandy Pylos and the blue waves of the Mediterranean waters to the broad plains of Thessaly and the far hills, That look along Epirus’ valleys, Where freedom still at moments rallies And pays in blood oppression’s ills, In like manner, those great world-conquerors, the Ro- mans—though, after they had attained to greatness, and become, for the most part, city-dwellers, they were too much occupied in the forum or the field, too busy in the struggle for existence, or in the pursuit of empire, to give much time to mere amusements, however manly or martial in their tendencies—always' continued in some degree to hold the sports of the field in esteem and honor; and no young man was thought much the worse, if he did at times neglect forensic duties and the “long business of his clients,” to couch him in the open field “beneath the frigid Jupiter,” awaiting the first gleam of the wintry dawn, when he might hope “Jatitantem excipere aprum fruticeto.”* It was not, however, until the advent of the Northern deluge of invaders, Scythians, Huns, Scandinavians, Teu- tons, Norsemen, that the hunting mania took permanent * “To receive upon his spear the lurking wild boar, when it rushes from the thicket.”—Hor. 22 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. possession of the popular heart, in every land which yielded to the sway of those warrior and hunter races. . And to this day, wherever a drop is to be found of that fierce Northern blood surviving in the people’s veins, there you will find, and in no other land, the passion for the chase alive and dominant. In southern Europe, in the nations which speak the soft bastard Latin, in Italy, Spain, Portugal, the shores and isles of the Mediterranean, there is no hunter-spirit in the people; and even where the chase has been attempted, as a regal pastime, by the rulers and the princes of the lands, it has fallen dull and ineffectual, a mere mimicry and simulacrum of the genuine sport, and no more like the real hunts-up, “than I to Hercules.” In the Teutonic wolds and woodlands, on the con- trary, on the bleak mountain-tops and misty moors of Scotia, in the deep green morasses of Hibernia, in the re- joicing valleys, over the breezy downs, in the time-honored forests of old England, among the perpetual snows of the frore and frozen Alps, upon the broad and burnt karroos of southern Africa, among Australian gum-trees or Cana- dian pine-woods; from the ghauts, from the grand peaks of the Himalayas, to the stern flanks of the Rocky Moun- tains and the skirts of the American salt desert, how gen- uinely, how spontaneously burns the hunter ardor of the Norse populations. So long as Britain remained provincial, the inhabitants having become almost entirely Romanized, during four centuries of subjugation, the chase, if it were followed at all, was but a desultory, casual and unsystematic pastime ; INTRODUCTION. . : 238 but so soon as the Saxons obtained a foothold on the soil, hunting with well-trained hounds, and the pursuit of fowls, “along the atmosphere,” by means of reclaimed falcons, became at once a science, a systematized royal recreation, and in the end, as it has continued to this day, wherever the Saxon and Norman strains of blood are extant, a popu- lar passion. During the reigns of the Saxon monarchs, to such an extent was this sport carried by the nobles, that “the sportsmen in the train of the great were so onerous on lands, as to make the exemption of their visit a valuable privilege; hence a king liberates some lands from those who carry with them hawks or falcons, horses or dogs.” * At the same time, so general had the taste become, that statutes were framed, and even the church interposed its censures, to prevent its abuse or misapplication. “ Hunt- ing ¢ was forbidden by Canute on a Sunday. Every man was allowed to hunt in the woods, and in the fields that were his own, but not to interfere with the king’s hunting.” The increase and prevalence of this recreation may be judged of, by the fact, that the “Saxon Boniface ¢ pro- hibited his monks from hunting in the woods with dogs, and from having hawks and falcons.” Even that weak, impassive, priest-ridden, half-monk king, Edward the Con- fessor, had “one earthly enjoyment in which he chiefly delighted, which was hunting with fleet. hounds, whose opening in the woods he used with pleasure to encourage ; and again, with the pouncing of birds, whose nature it is * History of the Anglo Saxons.—Sharon Turner, 3, 38. t Ibid. 3, 37. $ Ibid. 3, 38. 24 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. to prey on their kindred species. In these exercises, after hearing divine service in the morning, he employed him- self whole days. ” * Up to this time it would appear that game laws, such as they were, had been enacted only with reference to the maintenance of the liberties of all persons, the conservation of good order and decorum, and the prevention of viola- tions of the Sabbath; not as yet with any bias to the pre- servation of game, much less to interference with the natu- ral rights of classes. With the Norman conquest, however, while the passion for the chase received a vast farther impetus; while as a science, under the gentle terms of venerie and woodcraft, it was materially advanced; while in its appliances of all sorts, imported Andalusian coursers, partaking largely of the desert blood, which has since rendered the English horse so famous, imported hounds from Pomerania, Al- bania, Germany, imported falcons from Norway, Iceland, and the Hebrides, it was carried forward to a systematic completeness unheard of before, it was fenced in, as a royal and aristocratic privilege, with forest laws so cruel, so arbitrary and so stringent, as rendered the life of a red-deer, or even the egg of a swan, a heron, a bittern, or a long- winged hawk, more valuable than the blood of a low-born man; and finally it drove a large proportion of the rural, Saxon populace, into outlawry and direct rebellion, under chiefs who have acquired immortality, like Robin Hood and his merrymen, through the medium of those contem- * William of Malmesbury’s Chronicle of the Kings of England.— Book II. Chap. 13, p. 247, Bohn’s edition. INTRODUCTION. 95 poraneous ballads, which sound so truly in unison to the chords of the popular heart. Parcelled out, as greater and lesser fiefs, to the high Barons of the realm, and again by them to their knightly vassals, as were all the lands of England, as fast as they were overrun and conquered by the equestrian army of the Norman William and his successors; the sole right of following ‘and taking game in the field, the forest, the morass, of keeping animals or implements of the chase, was vested firstly in the king, and secondly in the holder of feudal and manorial tenures; without the smallest refer- ence to the ownership or cultivation of the soil. By degrees the stringency and the cruelty of these statutes were remitted; and it is a curious fact, that the codperation of the Barons in securing the liberties of the English people, as against the encroachment of the crown, was induced mainly by their desire to abridge the royal pre- rogative in the matter of the forest laws. From this period, and the state of things then existing unquestionably, dates the hunting spirit of the English gentleman ; his addiction to field sports, in utter disregard of climate, country, toil, hardship or exposure ; his jealousy concerning manorial rights and the preservation of his game; qualities and ideas, which he carries with him into whatever quarter of the globe he migrates, whether to the snows of Canada, the unwatered barrens of Australia, the pestilential brakes of Africa, or the tiger-haunted jungles of Hindostan, Celum non animum mutans si trans mare currat ;— 2 26 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. qualities and ideas, to which, though at times, perhaps, pushed to extremes and degenerating into something of license, he yet owes much of his excellence; and for which his country has a right to be proud and thankful, in that she may rely on him to rough it, as the noble of no other land can do, in the hour of toil and trouble. And this brings me to the gist and bearing of this my introduction. When first it was my fortune-to become a dweller on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, to be a lover of field-sports, was in some sort to be tabooed, as a species of moral and social pariah—the word sports- man was understood to mean, not him who rises with the dawn, to inhale the pure breeze of the uplands or the salt gale of the great south bay, in innocent and invigorating pursuit of the wild-game of the forest or the ocean wave; but him who by the light of the flaring gas-lamp watches, flushed and feverish, through the livelong night, until the morning star, to pluck his human pigeon over the green- field of the faro table. The well-to-do merchant foreboded no good of the younger man, who borrowed twenty-four hours in a month from business and Walls-treet, for a day’s snipe-shooting at Pine Brook, or a day’s fowling at Jem Smith’s. The lawyer, who, by chance, loved such sports, took them on the sly—packed up his gun and shoot- ing toggery in his carpet-bag, and stole across the Fulton ferry in full court-fig, having the dread before his eyes, of becoming, thenceforth, a briefless barrister, should but one of his clients begin even to suspect that he knew the butt-end of a Manton from its muzzle, much less could INTRODUCTION. ae stop a cock in a July brake, or land a four-pounder, with- out a gaff, on a single gut. It is a fact undeniable, and there be many yet alive, beside myself, who know it, that, when T. Cypress, jun., was inditing those exquisite bits of natural and sporting humorism, his Fire-island-ana, and other similar morsels of unsurpassed simplicity and art, which and which alone have made his name to be remembered; it was under the strictest seal of secrecy that he communicated his produc- tions to the favored few, who were allowed to introduce them to the world,—it was in fear and trembling, in some sort, that he saw himself in print; and with a firm con- viction that, if it should be once discovered, that he, a practising counsellor of high standing in New York, was actually guilty of the authorship of genre sietches, on sporting subjects, second, if second only—as I think not second, but superior—to Elia Lamb’s best Essays, “ Othel- lo’s occupation” were done for ever. That to be an author first, and then a lover of field-sports, must be the “deep damnation” of any New York lawyer, though he were a Blackstone himself, and a Coke upon him. At that time no man, however fine a scholar, however brilliant an artist, was held altogether reputable as an associate, or entirely right in his mind, if he were not wholly and solely devoted to business; and the only business, which was esteemed business, in the eyes of the wise men of Gotham, was that of making and hoarding money. . In many respects matters have mended since that time. It has been discovered that there are other uses for 28 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. money besides hoarding it; that a merchant may be just as much Sir Oracle on Change, and that a lawyer may hold fully as able an argument before a Supreme Court, though he be able to read a French novel, to enjoy an Italian Opera, or to have an opinion of his own con- cerning the merits of Maud or Hiawatha; that a native poet is not, necessarily, an idle fellow, fit for nothing rational or useful; nor a profound historian a sad misay.- plier of his time and talents; though still, be it said with all humility, the last-named laborers in the vineyard are far from holding the same place in society here, which they do, and ought to do, every where else. Still, while it must be admitted that some species of mental culture and improvement, which were, but a few years since, held to disqualify a man for success and usefulness in life, are now tolerated, and even admitted, if they do not prevent the main end of money-making ; it cannot be denied, that all bodily recreations, all athletic relaxations of the mind by alternation of physical efforts, all tastes and tendencies toward field-sports are as much or more discountenanced by the grave men of cities, and less practised by the gay young men of society, than they have been at any time before. With the former, it is regarded as pretty much the same, whether the young man, who has his way to make in the world by a trade, an art, or a profession, borrow a few hours or days from the counter, the studio, or the closet, to unbend the overstretched bow of his intellect by that needful exercise of the body, without which the mind cannot be preserved sound ; or to waste them in morning INTRODUCTION, 29 practisings of polkas with fast girls, or in nocturnal battles against the Tiger with fast men. And as to the latter, one need no more than look at the bleared eyes, sallow half-valanced faces, dwindled linbs, undeveloped frames, and rickety gait.of the rising generation of those, who, by virtue of their natural ad- vantages of wealth and position, ought to be the flower of the land, to see that they are utterly degenerate both in vigor of mind and stamina of body, and to prognosticate them, if they wed—as doubtless they will wed—like to like, with the fast, precocious, weedy beauties of the polka-nursery, as mox daturos Progenien vitiosiorem* Of late, I have observed with pleasure, that many of the best and clearest intellects in America have perceived the necessity of calling public attention strongly to this peculiar feature of the American character and consti- tution. One of the most eloquent, perhaps, the most finished of American orators, has dwelt impressively on the fact, that the headlong race and struggle, the earnest, life-enduring and life-consuming contest, for advancement, for wealth, for preéminence, for power ; beginning before the gristle of youth is hardened into the bone of manhood and ending only in the grave, is, in far too many instances, never relaxed for a moment, to enable the competitor to seek those changes and diversions from unremitting care and travail, which are as necessary to restore the tone of * Soon about to produce a progeny yet more defective.—Hor. 30 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. the mind, as are repose and sustenance to recruit the forees of the body. Even from the pulpit, the true sense of the word recreation, which men are wont to use frivolously as cquivalent to pleasurable excitement, has been pointed out—much doubtless to the wonderment of those ascetic geniuses, who have set up their witness against all amuse- ment—as if it were at best idle and unprofitable, if not sinful in itself, apart from its consequences. Much exercised, one can understand these Pharisees to find themselves in the spirit, on discovering that this re-creation, as they are wont to style it in their nasal self sanctification, is so called, because it has the acknowledged poteney, indeed, to re-create; or make anew from the beginning, and restore to all its pristine elasticity, lost and worn out by overcarefulness concerning the things of to-day, the mind, which has been actually wnmade by preternatural tension. That relaxation of the overtasked mind is necessary even to the maintenance, much more to the improvement of its powers, has never at any period of the world been doubted or disputed, Neque semper arcum Tendit Apollo—* has at all times been a proverb with the most Draconian of pedagogues; and never surely was there a time, when its value is so appreciable, as this age of high pressure * Nor does Apollo always bend his bow.—Zor, INTRODUCTION. 31 when every thing,—education, business, politics, all that concerns or interests mankind, is forced ahead without stay or stop, whether for consideration or repentance, as if by steam and electricity. And if it be admitted, as I think it will not be denied, that never was it more needful for the advantage, moral and physical, of all classes, that some comprehensive plan of rational diversion and relaxation from incessant labor and anxiety should be devised and recommended—it will scarcely, I think, be questioned or disputed, that never was there more need that some measure of manliness should be infused into the amusements of the youth of the so-styled upper classes—the jeunesse doree—of the At- lantic cities, some touch of manhood inoculated into the ingenuous youths themselves. Tt is worthy of remark that whatever faults, whatever weaknesses, follies, deficiencies or vices, may be justly laid to the charge of the English gentry and nobility, want of manliness, of pluck to do or to endure, is not of them. Of European armies alone the English is officered, from its subalterns to its commanders-in-chief, by the gentry. In France, the nobility have long ceased to be the nobility of the sword; the splendid hosts of the French are officered entirely by the guste milieu. While all other aristocracies are wholly effete, effeminate, evi- rated, field sports have preserved the English gentle- man strong, at least, of body, capable to walk, to ride, to endure cold, heat, hunger, weariness, wounds as well— he could not do it better—as the meanest of his fellow- countrymen or fellow-soldiers. 32 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. Lamentable as has been the misconduct of the war. disgraceful as the incapacity of the leaders of the war, infamous, I had almost said treasonable, as the apathy and nepotism of the home government, no word of blame has found utterance concerning the pluck, the stamina, the endurance, the devotion of the highly-born, softly-nur- tured, noble subalterns of the English army. They died in their stirrups in that appalling charge at Balaclava, avenging themselves by tenfold slaughter of their outnumbering foes—they rotted piecemeal in those charnel trenches—they weltered in mute agony, in *that dreadful ditch of the Redan, compelling their com- rades in anguish to like silence by the wonderful example of their young constancy. Heaven knows I wish to draw no invidious distinctions, or to institute odious comparisons, but I must be per- mitted to doubt whether the Schottishing flower of young York, who would shrink dismayed from the verge of snipe-bog, and faint at the idea of a ten hours’ July tramp over the Drowned Lands after woodcock, would have shone with much splendor in that hand-to-hand affair, in the Valley of’ Death, or have come with the vivacity of the Polka out of the semi-liquid, semi-frozen mud of those dis- astrous trenches. Seriously speaking, I believe that over earnestness in the pursuit of gain on the one hand, and over frivolity in the pursuit of pleasure on the other, are two of the beset- ting vices of the age; and I farther believe, that a little more charity and less austerity on the part of the old, and a great deal more manhood and less Miss Naney- INTRODUCTION. B3 ishness on the part of the young men of our Atlantic cities, are desiderata much to be desired. For both complaints I would seriously recommend, as a physician no less of the mind than of the body, mederate doses of field sports, to be-systematically taken, as the dis- ciples of Alsculapius have it, pro re natd. As I have, however, little faith in the docility, obe- dience or teachability of the old men, it is principally to the young men, and more especially to the young men of pleasant rural villages, of flourishing inland cities, and of the beautiful free country itself, from the pine forests and clear trout-streams of the farthest Hast, to the boundless prairies and towering crags of the farthermost West, that I commend this my complete manual of field sports. And this I will promise them, that, if they will follow my pre- cepts in the letter and in the spirit, although I may fail to turn them out very Nimrods and perfect Izaak Waltons, I will at least put them in the way of acquiring what is known, as the mens sana in corpore sano —in other words a good appetite, a good digestion, a good constitution ; tho use of their limbs for the purposes to which the God of nature intended them, “the slumbers light, that fly the approach of morn;” the consciousness of living innocently before God and manfully among men, and the certainty of dying, when the time of death shall come, as it behooves men to die, not misers or monkeys. Q* THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. In the United States and British Provinces of North America, as a general rule, shooting with the shot gun or the rifle, must be regarded as the head and front of Field Sports; and not, as is the case in Europe, second, as a tamer and far less exciting pursuit, to the glorious excite- ment of the chase. In the northern States of the Union and the British Provinces, the extreme severity of the winters rendering the country too hard to be run over by hounds or ridden over on horses, except during a few weeks in the autumn, and a few more in the first opening of the spring, as well THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE Ir 35 as the difficulty of the almost unjumpable timber fences, nearly debar the possibility of fox or deer-hunting with complete packs and mounted hunters. Nor, were it other- wise, is it probable that this sport could ever become very general or popular, owing to the dislike of farmers to have their fields crossed, and their fences broken down, by a rout of hard-riding Nimrods. Some years since, indeed, two packs of fox-hounds were regularly kept up in full English sporting style, the one at Washington, in the District of Columbia, by the gentle- men of the British legation, while Sir Richard Vaughan was at the head of it, the other at Montreal by the British residents and the officers of the garrison. They languished, however, in an uncongenial clime, and year by year were less and less strenuously supported, until both have, I be- lieve, fallen into total abeyance. In the southern States, where the seasons are not so un- propitious to the sport, where the properties are much larger, vested in fewer hands, and owned for the most part by the wealthier classes, who themselves constitute the sporting population, as in Maryland and Virginia, fox- hunting is still carried on, to some extent, by the planters; though with none of that accuracy of detail and complete- ness of appointment which attach to it, and render it so magnificent, both as a spectacle and a sport, in England; and, it is believed, with decreasing spirit and smaller favor, even in the imperfect manner which there obtains. In the Carolinas, Georgia, and some of the south- western States, deer-hunting on horseback with packs of hounds prevails; but cven there the shot gun is the modus 36 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. operandi, and the object of the hunter is to get a killing shot, not to ride across the open to a long and slashing run, and to be in at the death, when the quarry is pulled down by the pack at the end of a gallant chase. Bears are also hunted in the same style with packs of blood- hounds in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, but there the rifle does the execution, and the slaughter of the game by that instrument, not the rapture of the pursuit, is the end and aim of the pursuer. The only sport which bears any considerable analogy to hunting, as it is practised in Great Britain, is the coursing of the stag or elk with greyhounds, as it is, within the last few years, beginning to be considerably practised in some of the western prairie States; for in that, as in the English chase, the pursuit of animal by animal, the hunters and the hunted both, for the most part in full view, and the keeping them in sight by the speed of horses and by skill and daring in equestrianism, are the sources of enjoyment and the ultimatum to be obtained. Still, this phase of the sport being yet, as it were, in its infancy, few hounds of the peculiar race requisite being thus far introduced, and the pursuit itself rather excep- tional than of common practice, it must be admitted that hunting, in the European, and more particularly British sense of the word, is not an American field sport. The pursuit of the larger animals of game, where they exist, as the deer, the bear, the elk, the moose, the cariboo, and perhaps I may add, the turkey; although it is usually known in common parlance as hunting, is not properly THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 387 such, but comes under one of three heads,—‘ stalking,” which is here generally termed still-hunting, where the animal is followed by his sign, left on the soil, or on the trees and coppice which he may have frayed, by the aid of the eye and experience in woodcraft and the habits of the quarry alone, without the assistance of hounds— ‘‘stable-stand,” where the sportsman, taking his station at the intersection of deer-paths, at a haunted salt-lick, or at a well-ascertained watering place, awaits the voluntary advent of the animal, when he shall be impelled to move by the solicitation of his own instincts—or, lastly, “ dog- draw,” where, posting himself, as before, in such place as he judges likely to be passed by the fugitive, the shooter expects its coming when driven by slow hounds, who have drawn for it, and aroused it from its lair, under the guidance of his servants or companions. The last terms “ dog-draw ” aud “ stable-stand,” have long ceased to be sporting words in England, those methods of taking game having long fallen into disuse as sport; and the latter being practised rarely by the park- keeper, only in killing the half-tame fallow deer for the table—an animal, which is no more looked to for sport, or regarded as a beast of chase, than a south-down sheep, or a fatted calf. They were, however, common in the olden time, when a large portion of Great Britain was still covered with the natural forest, in which the wild animals roamed nearly unmolested, preserved by rigorous forest statutes, and obtainable ouly as game for the table, by shooting them, in one of the two methods described, with the cross-bow, 38 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. which then played, though less effectually, the part of the unerring rifle. Shooting is, therefore, as I have said, with one arm or other, the head and front of all American field sports; since but one species, the fox, and that only in one or two States, and in them but partially and exceptionally, is pursued and killed for sport, without the use of firearms. While every other animal, which we follow for the excite- ment of the pursuit, or for the sake of its flesh on the table, from the gigantic moose and formidable grizzly bear to the crouching hare, from the heaven-soaring swan or hawnking wild-goose to the “ twiddling ” snipe, is brought to bag by means of the rifle, the fowling-piece, or the ducking-gun; and to his thorough acquaintance, and masterly performance, with one or all of these, in his own line, the rank of the sportsman must be mainly attributed, and his claim to preéminence ascribed. I say, mainly attributable; because, although there are many other qualifications which go to constitute the accomplished sportsman, and without which, though he be the best and surest marksman that ever drew a trigger or squinted over a brown barrel, he has no right to arrogate to himself the title of a true sportsman, it is on this that he must rely. These qualifications may be named generally, as the art of breaking dogs, of managing them in sickness or in health, in the kennel or in the field—the perfect acquaint- ance with the habits, food, feeding-grounds, breeding sea- sons, migrations and haunts or habitations of those animals, whether of fur or feather, which are the objects THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 39 of his pursuit; and, beyond these, the possession of gen- eral information as to all the ruses, stratagems, and re- sources adopted in, and adapted to, the life of a hunter, which assist him not only in his first object, the overcom- ing or circumventing the victim on which he is intent, but on providing for the well-being and comfort, the subsist- ing and conditioning, both in and after the chase, in the forest or on the prairie, of himself and his companions, brute or human, quadruped or biped. Still, essential as all these things are to the character of the real and thoroughbred forester, they are all of no avail, unless he be skilful, prompt, swift, steady, deliber- ate and sure with the shot-gun or the rifle, at all shots, running, flying, bounding, crossing him to the right or left, going from him, coming toward him, or at rest. For of what use shall it be to him, though he have the finest, the most thoroughbred, the best-broken, the stanchest and fleetest dogs; though he bring them into the field in the best condition of stoutness and of nose; though he be so well acquainted with the propensities and natural history of the game he may be in search of, that he know almost as it were instinctively, at each season of the year, or at each hour of the day, on what ground to look for it, where, almost to a certainty, to find it, how to mark it down, whither to follow it up, how to bring his dogs upon its scent, to the best advantage; if when it b> found, or flushed upon the wing, or started from its covert, he cannot bring it down from its flight, or stop it from its course in full career. I have known many men in my life, both on this side +0 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. and the other of the Atlantic, who have kept dogs which they could not hunt, horses which they could not ride, guns out of which they could not shoot; lovers, or at least, pretended lovers of a sport, which they assuredly could not pursue to any profit, nor, so far as I can imagine, to any possible pleasure; who have yet fancied themselves, and even been called by others—who knew even less about it than they did themselves—sportsmen. But, though I may have been willing to give them credit as good fellows and promoters of sport for the benefit of others, I never could be induced to prostitute, by bestowing it on such as they, the noble appellation in which all, who have the right to bear it, rejoice with so legitimate a pride and pleasure. This being admitted, therefore, it will necessarily fol- low that the first thing to be done by the person aspiring to be a sportsman is, to provide himself with a good and effective weapou, and next, to obtain proficiency, in the highest degree possible, in its use. To both these ends, therefore, I shall devote a few pages of instruction, founded on long experience, and tested to my own satisfaction, at least, by the only sure proof of practice. T shall begin by assuming, what it needs no argument to establish, that for game-shooting of smaller animals on the field, there is but one weapon; the double-barrelled percussion shot gun. For the most inveterate supporters of the old flash-in-the-pan, flint-and-steel system have long aco been compelled to abandon their prejudices on the THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 41 subject, and to conform to the progressive improvement of the arm, or to fall behind the genius of the age. ; It cannot be, perhaps, denied that, in point of force and range, the flint and steel had some advantage over the percussion fowling-piece; for the charge being more slowly, was more thoroughly ignited, so that nearly every grain of powder in the load was burned before the shot was expelled from the barrel; whereas it is now not by any means uncommon to find—as one may clearly observe by firing a gun over new-fallen snow—at least one half of the quantity driven out of the barrel, unconsumed, and of course useless. The other advantages of quickness, certainty of dis- charge, sureness in all weather, in fogs or rain, or at sea, accuracy of aim, absence of smoke from the priming which often, especially in damp days, prevented a second shot, and instantaneousness of explosion, so vastly counterbal- unce the only existing drawback, that no man in his senses wuld think of using a flint-and-steel gun, when another could be procured. Even in military service, where the obstinacy of rou- tine and the economy of governments always cause im- provements to be most slowly adopted, and old exploded systems to be most pertinaciously upheld, the percussion system has every where been adopted ; and in view of this and the other improvements, as to range and accuracy, in the new arms, it is not too much to say that any body of men armed with the old soldier’s musket, the far-famed brown Bess, of the commencement of the present century, must be annihilated in spite of all advantages of courage, 49 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. strength or discipline, if opposed to troops armed with percussion and breech-loading minze-rifles, which do not miss fire once in fifty shots, and carry as many hundreds of yards, with accuracy, as their predecessors did paces. No one, again, it is presumed, who can afford the price of a double gun, would be content to shoot with a single, unless for ducking, where weight length and bore of such magnitude are required, as to render two barrels unhandy if not absolutely unmanageable; since a fair shot will kill at least a third more game in a day’s shooting, beside doing it in far more beautiful and artistic style with a double than with a single fowling-piecce. The prettiest thing in the art of shooting, and that which is the result of the highest skill and practice, so that it may be regarded as nearly the perfection of sportsman- ship, is the killing double-shots accurately, cleanly, and in fine dashing style; and I have never, certainly, «cen a per- son, who had any real claim to be considered a crack-shot, or a fine working sportsman, who used a single barrel, after he had attained years of maturity, and had become a master of his craft. For boys, just beginning to acquire the art of shooting, single guns are, in some respects, preferable, because they can be manufactured of sufficient strength, bore, and solid- ity, to shoot well at fair distances, yet sufficiently light to be managed by juvenile limbs; where a double gun not too heavy to be brought up to the shoulder cleverly by a boy, must be either a mere plaything and pop-gun, or, if of sufficient calibre and length to be at all effective, must be so lightly put together 2nd so deficient in metal, as to THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 43 be absolutely dangerous. It is, moreover, perhaps a trifle more difficult to learn to take aim over a single barrel, the double hammers tending, in some degree, to guide the eye along the clevation, so that when the young sportsman is promoted to the height of his ambition, the possession of a double-barrel, he will readily come into its use, and find it, apart from its superior weight, the easier of the two to direct rapidly and effectively toward its object. There is, moreover, clearly, less danger of accident, which is a matter calling for much attention from begin ners, where there is only a single trigger to be drawn and a single explosion to be guarded against. A very effective gun of fourteen gauge and twenty-eight inches, with a bar lock, capable of doing its work cleanly and well at forty yards, can be turned out, not to exceed five pounds in weight, at a reasonable price. Whereas a double-barrel of the same weight could not be manufactured of any thing like responsible materials, strength and solidity, of a cali- bre to exceed eighteen or twenty, with a length of two feet; a very useless and inefficient tool, incapable of oper- ating, with any certainty, beyond twenty-five or thirty yards; and one necessarily useless for any purpose, after its owner shall have acquired power to wield the weapon of a man; whereas the single piece of the same weight would always retain its utility, and be a handy and ser- viceable gun for ordinary purposes. The first thing desirable, then, for every sportsman, I hold to be, to furnish himself with the best and most available gun, as an instrument, suited to the purpose for which he requires it, at a price suited to his means. 44 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. First, the gun must be a good one in itself, well built, of good materials, strong, sound, and safe by the excel- lence of metal and superiority of finish, which also produce efficient carrying of its charge, rapid firing, and clean killing. Secondly, the gun must particularly suit the indi- vidual owner; for one gun will no more suit all men, than one coat will fit all wearers; and no man can any more shoot well with a gun that docs not come readily to his shoulder and fairly to his eye, than he can be at ease in a coat two sizes under his fit, or walk a foot-race in boots that pinch him. According to the length of the shooter’s arms and neck, must be the length and curvature of the stock, from the heel-plate to the breech; and that which constitutes a perfect fit, if I may use the word in reference to a gun, is this—that its weight being in due proportion to the size, strength, and comfort of the shooter, when it is raised deliberately to the shoulder, the right hand grasping the gripe, with its fore-finger on the trigger, and the left hand supporting the. barrels immediately in front of the trigger guard, it shall come so justly and handily to the face, that, the cheek being naturally lowered, with- out consideration or adjustment, the eye may clear the level of the breech, and at once find the sight at the end of the barrels, precisely on its own level. If the eye, above the breech, find any part of the barrel in view between itself and the sight, the stock is certainly too straight ; and possibly too short also. If the sight appear sunk below the breech, and it be necessary to advance the left hand, and so elevate the muzzle, in order to bring it THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 45 into the plane of vision, the stock is certainly too erooled, and not improbably too long. If, on the other hand, the eye palpably over-ranges the breech, or fails to reach it when the head is naturally couched to the aim, the stock is, in the first place, manifestly too short, in the second, as much too long. An ordinary shot will, by no possibility, shoot decently well with a gun defective on either side. A very crack shot, indeed, perfectly deliberate, and carrying all his ex- perience and practice continually in his mind, will, after a few shots, probably, so adapt his aim, by elevating his line of sight, or by depressing the muzzle of his piece, as to kill his shots; but he will never do so in his usually beautiful, sharp, clean, unhesitating style—for the posture of his head will necessarily be forced and unnatural; the gun will, as necessarily, not hold its correct natural posi- tion and purchase against the hollow of his shoulders; and, furthermore, the shooter will be obliged constantly to adjust his aim and search about for his object; instead of finding it precisely in its proper relative position to his eye, as soon as the butt touches his shoulder. This fitness of a gun to the shooter, can only be ascer- tained by himself, how little soever he may know about a gun; and he must not think of selecting a friend, how competent a judge of fire-arms soever, to choose for him, in this particular; though, in all other regards, he will be unwise, indeed, if he do not obtain and defer to judgment. Whether the gun comes truly to his shoulder and eye, he must try himself, and he may easily do it—thus: Let him, wearing any easily-fitting coat, accustomed to 46 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. his shape, and buttoned at the throat, place himself in a natural position, having the left foot advanced about eighteen inches; let him seize the gripe of the gun, as f have described above, with the right hand, having its fore- finger on the trigger ; let him place the left hand edgewise, under the barrel, immediately in front of the trigger guard, with which his palm will be in contact; and keeping his muzzle directly in front of him and his butt below his right elbow, hold his right hand close to his hip. Thus, let him raise the piece, steadily and deliberately, so that the heel- plate shall be brought evenly and firmly in contact with the hollow of the shoulder, and bend his head naturally, without any effort or attempt at adjustment, to the cheek- piece of the stock. Then, if the gun suit the holder, the eye will find itself accurately laid on the level of the breech, and the sight will meet its first glance, as if it rose from the base, instead of the muzzle of the gun; for the whole length of the elevated rib, along which the eye ranges, being exactly on the plane of the breech, howso- ever elevated or depressed, will be as completely unseen as if it had no existence. Consequently, when a deliberate point-blank aim is taken at a lifeless or motionless object, all, of which the eye will be conscious, is the breech of the piece, with the metallic sight rising above it, and set off by the substance of the mark aimed at, as if by a background immediately in contact with it. If this be not the case, without a second adjustment of the aim, after the gun shall be brought to the face—much more if it cannot be made to be the case at all, owing to THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 47 an incorrigible variance of its build to the formation of the shooter—the gun may be thrown aside; and further trials resorted to, until a piece be found possessing the necessary length and curvature of the stock. In addition to this, the pull on the trigger necessary to the release of the tumbler, should be tested, and ascer- tained to be agreeable to the finger and nerve of the in- tended purchaser. The way of ascertaining the exact force requisite to discharge the gun, is to hold it muzzle upward at full cock, when the weight attached to the trigger, which will cause the hammer to fall, is the measure of power needful. This power is very variable. In bad, ill-finished, ill- filed and insufficiently burnished locks, it is ex necessitate great. In coarse military weapons, intended for the use of men with hard, heavy hands, insensitive, nervous systems, and dull natures, as ordinary fighting men, the pull is in- tentionally made heavy; in order to counteract the oceui- rence of accidental discharges. The power required for the drawing the trigger of an old-fashioned soldier’s mus- ket varies from fourteen to sixteen pounds. That for the firing of the most highly finished and best London made fowling-piece is from four to four and a half pounds; that of a hair-trigger about one to one and a half pounds. Common Birmingham, or German guns, are exceed- ingly various in this respect, ranging from two to ten or twelve pounds power. Now, it must be remembered, that, while too heavy a pull annoys the firer, frustrates his aim, and, in nine cases out of ten, causes him to overshoot his mark; too light a 48 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. pull is dangerous, since a lock which works so easily as at two pounds pressure, or under, is liable to be put in mo- tion by an unconscious touch, or even by a jar from a touch or fall. In common, low-priced guns, such easiness is invariably owing to weakness and deficiency, and always augurs danger. To the beginner, this attention to the pull is compara- tively a matter of indifference; since his unmade finger readily forms and adapts itself to any pull. Still, itis advi- sable that he should early accustom himself to the true pull, which he must one day adopt. At first, it is well to use rather a hard-going gun, say of four or five pounds pressure, but no higher. It is easy to come down from a heavy to a light pull, but almost impossible to make the other ex- change. The best shot, who was ever born, and who had been accustomed for half a life to triggers of four pounds power, would not be able, after daily practice for six months, to shoot, up to his own force, with triggers of eight or ten pounds. Both triggers of a double gun should, moreover, , yield to precisely the same pressure; and, if a man desire to shoot equally and evenly, all his guns, pistols, and rifles should go accurately to the same pull, even his heavy ducking guns—stancheon or punt guns alone excepted, which for reasons hereafter to be stated require a hard and heavy hand : hair-triggers, for all field purposes, I utterly eschew. If a rifleman cannot shoot close enough with a four pound pull, he will not do so with a hair-trigger. More shots in the field are missed by too rapid, than by too slow firing. Nervousness and excitement are, nine THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHoosé Iv. 49 times out of ten, the cause of missing; and, whether on the duelling ground, or in the sporting field, the bravest and coolest man will be a shade more hasty and excited, than in the shooting gallery or the target ground. There- fore, no hair-triggers for me! Now, then, it has been shown briefly, and I trust com- prehensively, above, how to choose a gun in reference solely to its peculiar fitness and adaptation of form, length, weight, manageableness, &¢., to the individual purchaser, wholly apart from its intrinsic goodness of metal, work- manship, finish or effectiveness. If it be of such weight that he can handle it readily and rapidly, and can carry it without fatigue during a long and hot day’s shooting— if it come up truly and quickly to his eye—if its trigger yield to a pull which requires no jerk or effort, in the first instance, the gun may be said to suit the person. Of its intrinsic value much more remains to be said. I do not by any means propose, in this place, to follow the example of many of my predecessors in the composi- tion of works of this order, an example I think “more honored in the breach than the observance,” in attempting an elaborate description of the various kinds of metal, the varieties of workmanship, much less the manifold processes used in, or applied to, the manufacture of fowling-pieces ; or in pretending to disclose all the various tricks of the trade, and to show how the latter may be certainly de- tected by the purchaser. Were I to undertake the first, I should, in all proba- bility, show myself incapable of the task; for few amateurs, even of those the best informed, are competent to describe, 3 50 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. perhaps to comprehend, the materials and mechanism of a first-rate gun; although they may be perfectly capable of deciding on the quality of the gun when manufactured. If I should succeed in explaining these matters correctly, it is still very certain that the best of such explanations convey but a limited degree of information to readers, and necessarily fail of enabling them to judge for themselves. I know few cases in which the old saying, “that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” is more justly evinced than this. A little knowledge will probably suffice to render the possessor of it satisfied of his own ability to choose for himself; and, rejecting the aid of experience, he will probably get cheated for his pains. It is, in fact, a very difficult task for any person, from inspection, to detect with absolute certainty the nature of the metal of which the barrels are eomposed. In old times horseshoe-nails, wrought into wire or ribbon form, and welded together, were the basis of what were then the best barrels, known as stub-twist. The use of horse- nails has latterly decreased, owing to the deterioration of the iron used in their formation; and old carriage springs of wrought steel, mixed with Wednesbury iron, which is generally used and known in the trade as stub-iron, are now principally adopted for the manufacture of the best ordinary twisted barrels. ‘“ Gunmakers themselves,” says an accurate and able English writer on field-sports, Stone- henge, in his manual of British Rural Sports, “are often deceived ; and therefore it is reasonable to suppose that n@ inspection, which an amateur can make, will detect the defect in the quality of the iron or workmanship. No one THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 51 should buy a cheap gun, who values his life or limbs; at all events, he should be careful to have the recommenda- tion of some one who really understands his business, before he trusts to one.” It is my own opinion, that the only way by which one can be morally certain—physically one can not be certain of the quality of a gun—is by dealing with a house of established character and reputation, who have therefore credit to lose and name to sustain. And by the word house, be it understood, I mean gunsmiths or gunmakers, and not importing-hardware-man’s house. From the former, if he state frankly the manner of gun he desires, the price to which he means to go, and leave himself to the just dealing of the firm, the purchaser will probably, in nine cases out of ten, be fairly dealt with and well- suited. From the latter, do what he may, he never will, and never can, obtain a safe or decent piece; because such men do not themselves know any thing about the quality or character of the guns they are selling, merely purchasing them in the lump, by invoice, according to sample, to sell again singly at ten dollars, or at fifty, or at a hundred, each, including all the intermediate prices; all being guns precisely of the same intrinsic worth, but valued at more or less, according as they are filed down, French varnished, damascened by aid of acids, tricked out with German silver, and fitted up complete with velvet- lined cases and all appurtenances and means to boot, from the wholesale furnishing shops of Birmingham, and its vicinity. A good judge of a gun, by careful examination of all 52 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. its parts; of its finieh, engraving, the filing, buffing, and working of its locks, and by testing its firing, will be able to pronounce, with something nearly approaching to certainty, on the value of a fine gun; and, from its value and its finish, to satisfy himself whether it be or be not turned out of the shop of the builder whose name it professes to bear; since, be it known, the names of makers of guns are forged much more easily, much more frequently, and with much less risk of detection, or of punishment if detected, than are those of the makers of securities and powers of attorney. I have certainly seen many hundreds of guns, un- questionably short of three English pounds sterling value, to the original Birmingham wholesale manufacturer, bear- ing the names of Richards, Lancaster, Moore, and Joe Manton, sold in the United States, and shown by the pur- chasers as authentic productions of those makers, at prices varying from 50 to 150 doilars; for no one of which would I have given a ten-dollar bill—and this in the teeth of the fact, which every one knows, or might know, if he chose to learn, that not one of those makers ever sold a gun at home, for much less than twice the largest sum mentioned. Now, having satisfied himself, by examination of the finish, and by fixing the actual value of the gun, that it is the work of such and such a maker—which, if much acquainted with the work of eminent makers, he will do the more readily, that all of these have in some sort a peculiar style and character of their own—an amateur may at once rest content, that the workmanship is not out THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 53 of proportion to the goodness of the material; and, in short, that the weapon is, what it assumes to be, first-rate. For instance, an amateur, who is a tolerable judge, can easily recognize a lock of the first and finest quality, and distinguish between it and one even slightly inferior, on a very cursory examination. So he can judge, also, posi- tively of the finish, fitting, and mechanism of every part of the stock, there being nothing in the whole gun where- in the hand of the master more clearly renders itsclf visible. Now, if the locks and stock be manifestly of first-rate quality and workmanship, if they show in those niceties, for which every judge knows where to look, the skill of the cunning craftsman, the appearance of the barrels outwardly corresponding to the details of the rest, the purchaser need not fear but that there is “that within that passeth show ’—for it is not the habit, nor would it be worth the while of any workman to bestow labor of the most costly description, that which is the best paid, and to be procured with the imost difficulty at any terms, on materials intrinsically valueless. Again, it is only gunmakers of the superlative class, who can command or furnish such work ; and their charac- ter and interest must alike prohibit them from the practice of low rascality, which must be ultimately, and, to them- selves ruinously, detected. Thus, undoubtedly, many an old sportsman of intelligence and observation, who has had the advantage of long experience of the works of a num- ber of distinguished gunmakers, who has compared them with one another, and contrasted them against the highly- finished pretending shams of the furnishing shops, and the 54 . MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. mere rubbish of the Birmingham, German, and Belgian wholesale manufactories, will readily decide on the value of a gun in all respects, including the quality of the metal, and the unseen workmanship of the barrels. In the latter respect, however, his opinion will be induced mainly by analogous reasoning, and not by indirect scien- tifie judgment; though, of course, he will, even in this re- spect, fully appreciate the difference between fine, common, and very inferior work. As to what is the best quality of modern barrels, the difference of opinion is so great, that it may almost be said that no two sportsmen are of the same mind. Every species of barrel, cast-steel, laminated steel, damascus- twist, stub-twist, has its admirers and defamers; all of whom are charged by their adversaries with deciding, and many of whom probably do decide in many cases, as much from prejudice, as from sound judgment. Many believe ex- clusively in laminated steel barrels; others hold them to be utterly valueless and dangerous. Some adhere to the stub-and-twist ; while others, again, admitting that these were of old the best of all, assert that, the stub-nail iron, having lost its original high quality, the new substitutes have outstripped them. In the same manner some persous prefer fine wire-twist, some damascus-twist, and so on. I do not pretend to say that I have not my own opinions, though I do not wish to set. up for infallibility, or to assert that I have no possible bias, although as- suredly I am not aware of any; and, for such opinions as [ have, I can in some sort assign a reason. My own preference is, I confess, for the stub-twist THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 55 barrels, now as of old, as the strongest, safest, and, above all, the least easy in which to be deceived; and if it be admitted that the modern stub-iron is inferior in toughness to the old horse-nail stuff—which, however, I cannot hold to be sufficiently proved—TI still consider it, when of the best quality, to be of superior tenacity, and consequently a safer metal, than even the best laminated steel. I am aware that this opinion of mine is diametrically opposed to that of the advocates of the steel barrels, and that tables and scales of tenacity and endurance, as proved by experi- ment, have been published, leading to a different conclu- sion; but it is well known that great changes take place in the crystallization of metals and the arrangement of their component particles, long after they have become perfectly cool, and indeed long after they have been in use, which, according to one theory, causes these changes. These changes, it is admitted, when they occur, render the metal vastly more brittle than it was in the first form, and consequently dangerous. Now I am nof# satisfied that the trials, on which the alleged comparative tenacity of laminated steel is assumed, have been carried far enough, in relation to time; and I am all but entirely convinced, that dangerous cases of bursting have been more frequent, and, when they have occurred, more complete and terrible, in the laminated steel barrels of the highest quality and price, than in any other description of barrels of equal supposed and guar- anteed quality, I am certain it is more difficult to judge by their exterior appearance of what they are made, than it is of any other work. 56 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. The latter objection, also, militates strongly against the damascene-twist barrels, which may be, and are so exactly imitated by means of etching with acid, and high- finishing afterward, that it will puzzle the best amateur to pronounce positively which is the real and which is the imitated article. It is further alleged, that in twisting and re-twisting the metallic threads to the degree necessary to produce the beautiful wavy appearance, which procures for this species of work the name of damascus—as if it were analo- gous to the celebrated method of scymitar-making, now lost, which it is known not to be—the tenacity of the separate fibres is destroyed. This question I leave to the expert, not being sufficiently informed to venture an opinion. The fact, however, that there is an apparently reasonable doubt existing among those best capable of speaking to the book, as to the toughness and tenacity of the component parts of these two species of metal, and as danger is inextricably connected with error, I judge it best to hold to the safe side; the rather, that no one will deny imposition to be both easier, and of more common occurrence in these, than in any other form of barrels. It tells, also, disadvantageously for the damascened twist, that one rarely, if ever, sees one by any of the great London or, even Birmingham houses. I am cer- tain that I have never seen a damascus-twist gun by Purday, Manton, Moore, Lancaster, or—I think—Westley Richards; though I will not say that none such exist. Their rarity, however, goes to indicate that they are not THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 57 approved by those makers. Laminated steel guns I have certainly seen of rare beauty and finish, and of excellent performance, by many makers of high standing and repu- tation; as Greener, Ellis, Dean and Adams, and others; still, in truth, I can only say I do not like them— timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. I have seen Belgian guns, the best, I think, of all the Belgian work I have met, of the damascened twist, which, to a sound and safe appearance, have united good per- formance, and have stood well in service. But I have never seen any foreign European work, which for per- formance in the field and in long endurance can compare with the best English. Le Page, of Paris, turns out, unquestionably, the best French work. I have seen little Belgian, and no German work, I mean on fowling-pieces, not rifles or pistols, which I would care to own. In reference to laminated steel and damascus-twist barrels, I will state here one fact, which may be of use to novices, and on the correctness of which they way rely. Exceedingly cheap guns of both these descriptions, are to be found in every hardware and every gunsmith’s shop. These are, invariably, shams of the worst and most atrocious kind—infinitely worse than the common rubbish, for the most part, which professes to be little more than rubbish; since the very catchpenny frippery and fret- work are merely put on to cover flaws and conceal the real fibre of the metal. There never was such a thing made in the world, as a low-priced, damascened twist or 3* 58 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. laminated steel barrel. The labor necessary to produce them real, causes them of necessity to be dear. There- fore, if a cheap one be offered to the merest tyro, let him instantly reject it, without a second glance; and as he values his life, let him not fire it off. I do not, of course, #fean to say that every cheap gun must necessarily burst; but I do say that, against each one, severally, the odds are heavy that it will, at some time or other, apart from any carelessness of the shooter, fail in some part of its mechanism; and then, woe to the holder. No length of acquaintance with such a gun, no goodness of its performance—and I have seen some for which I would not have given a dollar, and which I would not have fired for a hundred, shoot more than passably— can justify the slightest confidence in it. On the con- trary, the more times one may have fired it with impunity, so much the greater are the odds against him that he will do so again; as any one would say of a person who should undertake to draw the fusee of a live shell with his teeth, or to lie down on a railroad track before the engine, in the expectation of being picked up safely by the cow-catcher. By the word low-priced guns, I mean, as a general rule, in reference to buying a safe and serviceable piece, any- thing like mew, with two barrels and the smallest show of exterior ornament, cheaper than fifty dollars. Of the mere rubbish of the German, and nameless English wholesale-murder-manufactories, sold at prices varying from three to twenty dollars, it is almost useless to write; since it is scarcely to be supposed that any one, who reads, ever thinks of buying such. They are mere THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE Ir. 59 cast-iron, in all parts, except the lock-springs, and I should about as soon fire one with a reasonable charge, as I would hold a hand-grenade in my fingers until it should explode. My opinion, preference and recommendation, therefore, are decidedly in favor of the best English stub-and-twist barrels that can be obtained for the price the individual sportsman can command; of which I shall speak anon. It may be presumed, I suppose, that every person who has the taste and means to follow ficld-sports at all, intends to follow them to the best of his ability, and to fit himself out with the best appliances and outfit his circumstances will command. Not because I take it for granted, with old Izaak Walton and some modern enthusiasts, that a sportsman is of necessity a larger-hearted and freer-handed fellow than his neighbor—for I must acknowledge to having been cognizant, in my day, of some very bitter screws among sportsmen, though, on the whole, I think they may claim to be above average—but because it is manifestly for their interest and their pleasure, for once, in their case synonymous, to be so. I shall, therefore, proceed to speak of the work pro- duced by different makers, of different localities; first, in their relative scale of excellence; second, in their relative scale of price. Lastly, I shall state my own views as to thé comparative ratio of excellence and price combined; and the method of purchasing suitably to comparative pockets. It must be remembered, that, in all this, I pro- fess.only to give my own opinions, not to claim for them infallibility, or even superiority to the opinions of others. 1 have had some experience, and some opportunities of 60 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. judging, and according to these, I have formed conclusions which I believe—as most men do of their own conclusions— to be correct and sound. These I proceed to give, some- times with reasons in brief, sometimes, where to reason would be too long, simply as conclusions, for the benefit of those who have either formed no opinions at all, or hold them in abeyance, subject to farther experience. I wish to interfere with no man’s notions, which are his own peculiar property; and with no man’s legitimate business—the sale of condemned and perilous fire-arms I do not esteem a legitimate business—and this I think it well here to state, because, some years since, I was assailed in a most ungentlemanly and unjust manner by anonymous scribblers, in various journals—most of them directly set on by persons who were interested in the sale of articles to which I did not choose to award praise; some doubtless actuated by mere prejudice in favor of some old gun of their own, and consequently of its maker—for presuming to recommend certain guns, made by a certain maker, all of which, by the way, have given the hig':est satisfaction to their purchasers, and for recording my preference of London to provincial English makers. This preference, I again beg most distinctly, and if possible, more distinctly than before, to record. And I am fully aware and confident that no sportsman, who eVer owned a, first-class gun, made by a first-class London ma- ker, ever did or ever will exchange it for any other gun in the world. And that no sportsman, who has examined and tried the two articles, and whose pocket will afford the expense of the London maker’s gun, will ever order one from the best provincial. THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 61 The reason of this superiority of the London makers, is easy to be discovered. London concentrates the largest number of the wealthiest men and the best sportsmen and judges, consequently of the largest and best buyers in the kingdom, probably in the world—men who will have noth- ing but what is the best, and will have the best, whatever it may cost. Therefore, the most ambitious, enterprising, intelligent, best, master-gunmakers make London their head-quarters; they, finding that nothing but the best work will do, and that for it they can realize the best prices, must have the best workmen to execute that work, and, to have the men, must pay the best prices, and do so. Hence the most intelligent and best mechanics are con- stantly drawn from the provinces to the metropolis; and so soon as any one becomes known as a fine craftsman in any division of the work, he is sought for, and knowing that he can command larger wages in London, beside a wider sphere of fame, than he can in his province, at once moves thither; for it needs not to premise that no man works for small wages, who can command large, for the same amount of labor. Hence, London work is necessarily, naturally, and by admission of the most competent judges, the best; and comparatively, that of the highest reputed and highest priced London makers is the best of London work. For, although we may say fashion has much to do with it, very few men of the very richest—unless they chance to be natural fools—will prefer giving sixty to forty guineas for any article of purchase, unless they honestly believe the 62 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. sixty-guinea article to be intrinsically worth its value above that which they can buy for forty. Generally, it may be assumed that the sixty-guinea maker pays higher wages than his competitor who sells for forty. It may be answered the price is sustained by the name. Be it so; the name must have been originally gained by something beyond luck—for luck never made a fowling-piece; and by that something which gained it, the name must be sustained. That something is superior workmanship—in all such houses the best of material may be assamed—and I believe fully that the workmanship of the highest priced is superior to that of the lower priced London maker, in full proportion to the superiority of his charges; and I believe the same thing to be yet more clearly the case, as between the London and the provincial maker. I perceive that this opinion is not likely to be the popular one, for there are of course fifty men, especially in this country, who will buy a Westley Richards gun for ‘two hundred dollars, where there is one who will buy a London gun for twice that sum. And as every man who owns a gun, believes it, and is prepared to maintain it, to be the best gun in the world; therefore there are always fifty best Westley Richards guns, where there is one best London gun. Again, every gunmaker so soon as he ascer- tains that his customer will go as high as the price of a Westley Richards’, but cannot be possibly induced to rise to u London value, assures him, in the most positive man- ner, that Westley Richards’ guns are in every respect equal to Purday’s, or whose you will; and that the difference is THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 63 mere fancy and fashion. It is true that, so soon as he has gone out of the shop with his bit of Birmingham, the seller will laugh at what he has just been saying with the man who happens to be buying copper caps for the London gun, which he imported the other day on his own hook. Eut then the buyer of the bit of Birmingham does not hear the laugh. Therefore, dear reader, I believe the best gun is that which you can buy of the best London maker, for some- thing between fifty and sixty pounds sterling; from two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars, including case and appurtenances, made to your own order. The London makers, stated by Stonehenge, in the work quoted above, of the present year, 1856, to be repu- ted the first, are, alphabetically placed, Lancaster, Lang, Moore, Purday. The second is somewhat cheaper than the others; but Stonehenge rates his work at cash prices; and it is well known that all makers give a discount for that indispensable article. Purday has, perhaps, the widest reputation. I have my own favorite, as every sportsman naturally has; but as the preference is, perhaps, more in taste than in stern judgment,— “ Between two blades, which has the better temper,” it is not desirable to insist on it. From any of the four, there is no doubt that an undeniable piece may be pro- cured. Many of the old names, famous in the gun trade, are extinct, or exist as names only; the present owners of 64 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. them having no relationship to the departed worthies, nor has the mantle descended on the pretenders. To those who cannot afford the London prices, then I recommend the best provincial makers of England, unless they prefer, as I should, to build a gun in America, under my own eye, at the best provincial price. Of the provincial gunmakers, the best, probably, and at all events the most generally known, is Mr. Westley Richards; for it is idle, although he has a London estab- lishment, with Mr. Bishop at its head, to speak of him as a London gunsmith, since his guns are notoriously made and finished at Birmingham, and sold at Birmingham prices. Mr. Richards’ guns are well liked, and, as it is evident from the general favor in which he is held, give satisfaction; I have seen many handsome, well-finished, and strong-shooting guns from his shop, though the tout ensemble of their fitting and finish does not, as in fact it cannot be expected to, come up to the highest priced London guns. My greatest objection to his guns is, that I think I have observed them to be soft. I do not mean soft- metalled, for that I regard as a merit, not a defect; but incapable of enduring hard usage, and liable to yield and give out disproportionately soon, as considered in refer- exce to their price relatively to London guns. So far am I, however, from desiring to disparage his work, that, for persons who cannot afford to pay £50 or upward for a Purday, a Lancaster, or a Moore, or who consider that price enormous and absurd, as I know that some men do, I have nothing better to recommend, than that they should THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE It. 65 send their order, for exactly such a piece as they require, accompanied by the precise measure of a stock which suits them, to Mr. Bishop of Bond Street, when they will pro- bably procure what will satisfy them, as well as the others would satisfy me, at a far lower price. What the exact price of Westley Richards’ best guns is at this moment, I do not accurately know; but I presume that it is from £30 to £35, from 150 to 175 dollars, with case and appur- teuances, not including freight or duties; which would bring his best work here to the price of two hundred dol- lars, more or less. Mr. Lang’s best double gun is stated by Stonehenge to be sold,in case complete, for £38, or 190 dollars, cash on the spot; and he further asserts, that “ certainly it will be admitted that, for all the essentials desired by the crack shot, Mr. Lang’s gun may lay claim to as high a standard as those of any of his rivals.” Besides Mr. Richards, there are other Birmingham makers, who turn out reputable work to order, and who are not to be confounded with the perpetrators of the detestable rubbish which finds its way into the United States, and is sold at almost every price from one dollar to one hundred. Every principal shire-town in England, or nearly s0, has some maker of high, at least, local celebrity ; and some of these, as Parsons of Salisbury, Cartmel of Doncaster, Patrick of Liverpool, and others, whose names I do not remember, have become known and of good repute throughout England. Others have doubtless succeeded to these, since I have been a dweller in America, but little of their work has been, or is likely to be, imported; and 66 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. no person is likely to come in contact with their work, un- less he casually visit the spot of their operations, and be tempted of his own choice to purchase. It is needless, therefore, to consider these. Below a hundred dollars I would counsel no man to buy an imported gun. There is a sort of gun, manufac- tured even by the best London makers, called a game- keeper’s gun, at £15 sterling, or 75 dollars, entirely plain, without engraving or any external finish. The locks are sound, well-working, and perfectly finished, though desti- tute of course of the last exquisite sharpness, smoothness and ring, which at once speak for the first-rate gun. The barrels are stub-twist, and may be relied on for solidity, safety, and excellent performance. I shot with one of these guns, in 1849, during a tour on the Great Lakes, and, though it had not certainly much beauty to brag of, it executed beautifully and at long ranges, and was pro- nounced by “ Dincks,” a very competent judge, the best low-priced gun, and the cheapest gun, he ever saw. At my advice, a small number of these guns was sent out hither, for sale, at the lowest possible price; that is to say without any importer’s profit, commissions or the like; and those of them which found purchasers, gave the greatest satisfaction. Their unpretending appearance, however, the incompetency of buyers to distinguish their real su- periority to the lacquered trash of the Birmingham hard- waremen, and above all, the interested opposition of the vendors of such trumpery—who caused them to be written down by hireling scribblers, principally in the country presses, though some of their lucubrations found their way THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 67 into the Spirit of The Times—prevented the success of the experiment; and such guns never now, and probably never will, again, find their way into this market, even if or- dered expressly. Nevertheless, no gentleman visiting London, and de- siring to procure a cheap, servicable, safe, though plain gun, can possibly do better than call on any one of the makers I have mentioned—Laneaster, Lang, Moore or Purday, and ask for a gamekeeper’s gun. If he be a sportsman, and do not get a working tool up to his mark, he will be hard to please; but he must not expect any ornament, or any thing approaching to the high finish, or close and accurate fitting of pieces of four times its value. For all guns of one hundred dollars, or under, I would earnestly advise all purchasers to have their own guns made to order in the American Atlantic cities, by American gun- makers of standing reputation. It will be understood, that the locks and barrels are all English made and Eng- lish bored, though neither filed nor finished; and that they can be, and are, got up in New York, by several perfectly good and trustworthy workmen, in any style, from fifty to two hundred dollars; and I presume, and indeed under- stand, that the other principal seaboard cities of the Union are not far behind New York in this particular. I have seen guns manufactured by Henry Tomes & Co. and by Henry T. Cooper, while he was in business, for 150 dollars, which, in all respects, I would myself have preferred to any one of Westley Richards’ at any price; and I can cheerfully and truthfully say the same for guns of all descriptions, made by either of those excellent me- 68 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. chanics, John and Patrick Mullin of New York, while 1 have seen and handled guns at 75 and 50 dollars, by the former of the two makers last named, which I would have preferred to any hardware-shop Birmingham gun, by a nameless maker, with all its paraphernalia, at any possible price. His fifty-dollar guns, of 30 inch barrel and {4 gauge, are, in point of real utility, excellent, serviceable, cheap, and perfectly safe arms. The purchaser can see them in the rough, before they are filed or finished, and sce of what metal and stuff they are made; or, if he be at a dis- tance, can commission his friend or agent to do so for him. The gun will not possess the finish, the lock will not work with the same unimprovable oiliness, soundness and clear- ness, as the lock of a three-hundred-dollar imported gun, nor will its barrels, probably, throw the shot with the same equality and regularity of distribution or force. Its details will not be as accurate, nor its joimts and fittings as unimpeachable. But, if held straight, it will kill its game, sure and dead, at thirty-eight or forty yards; and what is much better, it certainly will uot kill its owner— which, be it said, with all deference to Messieurs the im- porters thereof, cannot be predicated of any gun that ever was imported at any such price. Fivery dollar over 50 and up to 150, will produce a dollar’s worth of actual improvement, and intrinsic value in the article; but when we get beyond the hundred and fifty, the farther advance is for external show. I know nothing beyond that, but if it seem good, to try Richards’ at £35 sterling, with the duties added—though I would THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 69 rather have the Mullin—or to go at once to head-quarters and get a London fifty-guinea, on whose shooting you may wager your life, with the certainty of winning, and of the gun shooting as well fifty years hence, as on the day of purchase. As Peter Probasco said to J. Cypress, jr., in the fisher’s hut at Fire Islands, ‘“‘ Them’s my sentiments, and you knows ’em!” T said in the opening of this subject, that the double- barrelled fowling-piece is the only weapon and ultimatum of art for the sportsman. No greater number of barrels than two can be combined, so as to produce a manageable and effective piece; nor if there could, would the crack shot, once in twenty times, use a third barrel at three different birds, much less fire thrice at one. Than a crack shot, no other possibly could do so—if it be considered, how quickly a bevy of quail, all taking wing simul- taneously, get out of the range of shot, and how rarely, when they-do spring all together, even two barrels bring down their two birds clean killed. All revolvers for sporting shot guns are out of the question ; for more time is lost in recocking and revolving the chamber, than could be recovered by the quickest shot in time to kill even a second, much less a third or fourth bird; besides which, the weapons are unpardonably clumsy hideous, and unsportsmanlike, and fail entirely of execu- tion as compared with ordinary chambered guns. Stone- henge gives a cut and description of a new breech-loading double gun, invented by a Frenchman, and improved by Mr. Lang, in which the barrels are raised from their con- nection with the false breech, by the turning of a crank, 70 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. and expose the lower end of their calibre for the reception of a cartridge containing, in itself, the percussion cap, the powder, and the charge of shot, with a small brass pin, impinging on the percussion powder, attached to it, which, when the loaded barrels are again brought into their pro- per position and connestion, stands up in a notch between them and the false breech made to receive it, and meeting the blow of the striker, discharges the gun. Stonehenge speaks of this gun in terms of strozg praise, and states his opinion, that “if as good in practice as it appears to him theoretically perfect, its invention will be almost as great an cra in gun making as that of the detonator itself.” This language and praise are to me alike inexplicable. This gun has no nipple, no possibility of being loaded or fired except with the identical cartridge prepared for it, which is, and can be, only prepared at the shop which supplies the gun. It is true, he says, that the cartridge cases remain in the gun, and on withdrawal can be recapped and recharged many times; but, apart from the incon- venience of lugging about on your person a hundred or two, if you expect a good day’s sport, of these cartridges —since the idea of a sportsman sitting down in the middle of a snipe-bog or a cock-brake, to recharge his cartridges out of a powder-and-shot magazine, which he must also carry about with him, is preposterous—what on earth is the shooter to do, if he takes it into his head to visit the Himalayas, or the Rocky Mountains, Canada or the Cape, or any other distant shooting ground (by no means impos- sible to, or unattempted by the British sportsman), where THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 71 cartridges for Lang’s breech-loading double-barrels cer- tainly are not to be found growing on thorn bushes? Is he to carry with him, in heaven’s name, a hundred barrels of cartridges on camel-back, or mule-back, or his own back, with the consciousness that these indispensables, once used up, his double-barrel is of less use even than a broomstick ? The want of simplicity is enough to ruin any inven- tion; and this, it needs no prophet to foretell, must be inoperative, except as a pretty plaything to be used at home. The gain, moreover, I should fancy from his drawing, is next to nothing; and I should judge that a quick smart loader would recharge both his barrels by the muzzle with a good flask and Sykes’s patent-lever pouch, and cap them in the ordinary way, while his comrade is turning the crank, withdrawing the old cartridges, replacing the new—which by the way can only be done correctly under the eye, and hardly by touch—and bringing back the barrels to their place. The advantage in point of time can be scarcely, then, worthy of notice; and no gain of time is in truth requi- site, in the case of shot guns. They can be loaded, fired, reloaded and refired, in the ordinary way, quite as rapidly as for ordinary purposes can ever be needed; and this every one knows, who has ever been present at an English battue, or has been obliged to sit down, as I have, a dozen times at least in my life, in the middle of a snipe-meadow, or of scattered bevies of quail, to let my barrels cool, before I have dared to reload them. “I bo MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. For rifle-shooting, especially in warfare, or in hunting on horseback, where the loss of time, the labor and incon- venience of forcing a patched ball down a tight, and, per- haps foul, grooved barrel, is great, the case is quite differ- ent. The gain is incredible, and the improvement, in fact, tantamount to the creation of a new weapon. But, as applied to shot guns, I know but one case, in which breech-loading is desirable; namely, in very long, ponderous and unmanageable duck guns, where it is difi- cult to reach the muzzle and insert, much more drive home, the loading rod; and most of all, in the stancheon or punt gun, which is fired like a cannon from a carriage. Here the breech-loading system would work admirably, but it must be on Perry’s patent-arm plan, of which I shall have occasion to speak more anon, where the cham- ber can be loaded with loose powder and shot as easily as with the cartridge, and the nipples capped by hand, almost as readily as by the self-priming apparatus connected with it. With regard to the weight, length, and calibre of double-barrelled fowling-pieces, there has always been and continues to be much diversity of opinion. The sticklers for the old system adhere pertinaciously to the long barrel and small bore, the length to be in- creased as the calibre is enlarged. The upholders of the extreme modern school insist on gauges, such as were never heard of in the olden times, and barrels proportion- ately short; maintaining that they will carry heavier charges with equal execution, and vastly increased handi- ness, especially in covert. THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHoosE IT. 73 The old rule of proportion was 46 or 48 diameters of the bore to the lengih of the barrel; and on this Col. Hawker insists, consistent to the last, in his latest edition, advising that a gun of fourteen gauge should never be less than thirty-four or thirty-six inches in length, and that thirty-two inches is the proportion for a twenty-two guage. I do not doubt that, for the mere carrying of shot, the ex- treme length will keep the charge together lonyer, and, consequently, that a three-foot barrel will throw its shot more regularly and evenly at sixty yards, than one of two foot eight ; and that a twenty-two gauge gun of thirty-two inches length, will do so in a yet greater degree. Therefore, if carrying shot to a great distance, say 60 yards, evenly, without reference to the quantity thrown, or any other consideration, be the test, a gun of twenty-two gauge and thirty-two inches would be the best in the world; but a gun, of twenty-two guaze and thirty-two inches, would not be of above 5 lbs. weignt, and should not, at the utmost, be loaded with above 14 drachms of powder and $ ounce of shot—which shot ought never to be above No. 6 or 7. In other words, it would be a mere child’s plaything and pop-gun. On the other hand, the gun of fourteen gauge, at the same proportion of gauge to length, should be, not as he recommends, three feet, but three feet 7? inches, and would probably weigh about twelve pounds. The colonel’s advice, therefore, to use a thirty-four or thirty-six inch barrel with a gauge of fourteen, is, in itself, a compromise, founded on the sacrifice of force to ease of handing; since it would have been clearly preposterous to tell men to go out cock- 4 V4 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. shooting with guns six feet long, weighing twelve or four- teen pounds. But a much farther compromise is necessary, and it is now pretty generally conceded that the best and most useful gun, applicable to all kinds of shooting, and service- able in all, is one of fourteen gauge thirty-one inch bar- rel, and 74 to eight Ibs. weight. Such a gun will carry a charge of 11 ounce of shot to about 34 drachms of powder, which is in the ratio of icasure for measure, or seven to one by weight, and do its work well, regularly, evenly and effectively at forty yards—dispersing its shot, at that distance, over a circle of thirty inches diameter, so evenly that, supposing No. 8 shot to be used, no wood- cock, quail, or single snipe shall be within that circle un- pierced by one or more pellets—or, if larger shot be used, no ruffed grouse, prairie-fowl, or wild duck. I do not intend, by any means, to indicate forty yards as the extreme distance at which such a gun will do its work fatally, but only as the distance at which it ought invariably to do it, killing every bird clean, if it be held so straight as to bring the bird aimed at within the circle. Beyond this it will often, I may say constantly, kill some shots at fifty, some fewer at sixty, and now and then one at seventy yards; moreover, such a gun will carry, when required, an ounce and three-quarters or two ounces of No. 1 or 2 shot, with 34 drachms of powder, with great force and effect; it being remembered, that when we estimate by filling a measure of one capacity with pellets of different sizes, the measure of No. 10 shot being almost. solid, will weigh at least one-third more than the same THE GUN, AND HOW TO CiCOSE IT. 75 measure of No. 1, where the interstices are as numerous as the pellets. So that two ounces, or rather the full of what is called a two ounce measure, in a shooting-pouch, of No. 1, shall not really weigh more than one and a half ounce of No. 10, by the same measure. This then constitutes, according to my opinion, the gun above described, the most available for all purposes, and the most useful general shooting gun for all sports- men who can afford but one gun for all work, that can be made. It is sufficiently short and handy to be easily recover- able, and to shoot with murderous effect in the closest and most tangled brake. It is sufficiently close-carrying and hard-hitting to do its work, as well as any gun is ever needed to do its work, on the wildest game in the open. It will stop a wild duck going down wind with No. 2 shot at 45 to 50 yards, or with an Eley’s cartridge at 70 ; and with ten slugs in a wire cartridge, a stag at the same distance will have but a poor chance before it, for it will throw the ten slugs into a twenty-four inch diameter. . L have never myself shot in any covert with a shorter gun, nor did I ever feel that I was giving any odds to those who did. I have never shot in the open with a longer or heavier gun, and I have always felt, that in shooting a hard long day through, I was taking large odds from those who did. It must be remembered, which, for the most part it is not, that the great majority of birds killed are recovered dead, within twenty yards of the muzzle; that not one in fifty, ina day’s shooting, is gathered over forty, and that 76 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. none but a very crack shot, and he but rarely, shvots at a bird which is forty yards off when he draws the trigger, and which, if going away from him, or down wind, will be when killed at least ten yards farther. It is safe to assert, that not one bird in a hundred killed is shot at when above forty yards from the trigger, and that birds so shot at, not one in ten is brought to bag. By this, one may judge how much avail there is in talking about the necessity of having guns, which shall shoot evenly and strongly at sixty yards. No gun, I had almost said, ever did so; and would be of little avail if it did. It cannot be denied that very short guns, so short ag 26, 28, and even I believe 24 inch barrels, with gauges so large as 10 and 9, having the weight of the 14 gauge and 31 inch guns, have been found to shoot far better than had previously been supposed possible, carrying heavy charges, and not appearing so much deficient in range or penetra- tion as to be manifestly inferior to the larger guns. Fer covert, their powerful load, and the comparatively large space which their shot covers, rendered them exceedingly fatal, and, for a time, they were all the rage with London makers, and some were even exported hither; but on the moors, and even in wild partridge shooting, in England, they did not tell, and for this country or British Colonial shooting, they never had any wide or general market. If one were rich enough to have a gun for every season of the year, one of these short wide-barrel London guns, by a first-class maker, of about 6} Ibs. weight, would be a very agreeable change for July cock-shooting, reserving the TH GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE Iv. 17 more serviceable 14 gauge for spring and fall snipe-shoot- ing, and for autumn shooting in general. To persons who can afford one only, such a piece would be nearly useless, as it would be two to one against him, the year through, compared with his companion carrying a gun such as I recommend. In any event, it is a mere piece of luxury and cox- combry, scarce worthy of a sportsman, to affect a particu- jar gun for every season; and, what is more, it is not unlikely to detract seriously from his shooting; even if it be built of exactly the same weight, bend and length of stock, and trigger-pull; since no two or more guns ever come up, much less shoot, exactly alike; nor does the same man ever execute equally with two guns. Like the proverbial man of one book, the man of one gun is to be bewared. He is likely to prove an ugly customer. In one case, I should recommend the adoption of a different gun to the above, or the use of two of different sizes. That is, where the shooter has little or no upland shooting; by which term I mean snipe, woodcock, quail, grouse, prairie-fowl and hare, using it in opposition not to lowland, but to bay shooting, and depends for his sport on the shores, lagoons, creeks, and beaches, or even inland rivers and lakes; when I would advise, in lieu of the gun I have so often described, one of ten lbs. with two barrels of thirty-six inches, and 8 or 9 gauge, Such a gun is the most effective that can be had for single fowl or for small flocks, and for shore-birds, such as curlews, marlins, wil- let, plovers and the like. Where a sportsman is so lucky 8 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. as to have a combination of the two kinds of sport, in nearly equal proportions, and follows both with nearly equal ardor, I know no plan but that he should have a gun of each description; for the heavy piece it would be too wearisome to carry over hill and over dale, and the lighter will not tell its tale with effect on sea ducks; while, if a fine and costly article, it will be seriously damaged by the sea mist and salt air; and the finer the finish aud eneraving, the greater the damage. Such a gun ought to be, by choice, as plain as it can be made. Every line of engraving is a positive drawback, only serving to hold rust. The maximum price, which I should held it desirable to pay for a fowl gun of this de- scription, is one hundred dollars, and for that, or even for eighty, any one of the New York makers I have named, will provide one of undoubted excellence. Than this, I think no double gun should be made larger. For boat-shooting in the bays or beaches I recom- mend, what I always use, two single guns of fourteen to sixteen pounds weight, four foot barrels, and 5 gauge. They should be miade without ramrod or pipes, which only renders them top-heavy, and provided with a solid loading rod having a round knob on the upper end, and a complete set of cleaning apparatus to screw in at the other. These guns will carry four ounces of any sized shot from BB down to 4, and an equal measure of powder, and will kill with loose charges at 80 yards; with green car- tridges at 100, sure. They are English made, and imported; and can be THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE Ir. 79 had, the best, for 35 to 40 dollars. If they be top or muzzle-heavy, which they sometimes are, and which is a bad fault, and a great hindrance to quick shooting, the fault may easily be remedied, by taking off the heel-plate, scooping a hole in the butt, and running in a pound or two of lead. The restoration of balance, by means of this counterpoise, will far more than compensate the increase of the total weight; the rather that guns of this size are only to be used in boat-shooting, not carried in pursuit of game. A very little practice will enable a hardy man and quick shot to use two single guns, laying down the one after firing, and snatching up the other; if not quite so rapidly as one double-barrel, quite rapidly enough to de- molish a flock, by getting in both loads. I have, at this moment, one of the exact character described, so handy, that I can raise and manage it with ease with my left hand on the trigger-guard. For sea-fowling guns, the nipples should be of the inverted fashion, having the orifice like a funnel, large above and tapering to a point below; as the flame of the cap is thus more forcibly injected, which is needful, as the coarse-grained powder, which is preferable for sea shooting, will not enter the cones. As to the makers, qualities, prices, or descriptions of guns needful to the sportsman, I have no word more to say; but as to the mode of choosing, a few hints may be found serviceable. We will suppose a person, having made up his mind to what price he will go, and what description of piece he needs, to have found, by the assistance of competent 80 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. judges, several guns the work of responsible makers, and in the hands of dealers on whose faith he can rely; and from among these to have selected some two or three, which he has ascertained, by testing them according to the instructions on pp. 46, 47, to suit him, as to weight, curva- ture of stock and trigger-pull—the last can be altered, if too hard, by the touch of a file. He should now proceed to try them by firing them in the open air, with a full charge of powder and shot, as prescribed before, at a distance of forty yards. The mark should be twenty-four sheets of thick tarred brown paper, large enough to contain an inte- rior circle of thirty inches diameter. Into this circle the gun ought to put its whole charge point-blauk; I mean without more elevation than that given by the rib. The shot ought to be dispersed evenly, not strewed here in clusters of a dozen or more close to- gether, and there with spaces of several inches intervening. A gun doing the first may be depended upon for killing, if held straight. With one planting its charge, as the second, it is hit or miss by luck. Ifa small part only of the charge is lodged in the mark at that range, and those wide apart and much dispersed, the gun scatters too widely, and consequently shoots weakly ; discard it, therefore, on the instant. If, on the contrary—but that will very rarely happen, at forty yards—the charge should be much, though evenly concentrated, in the centre of the mark, especially if it have put a great proportion of all its pellets through all the 24 sheets of paper, the gun is a wonder. It is possible it may shoot ¢oo closely, that is, may tear THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 81 its object to pieces in the hands of a dead-shot, or miss it clean with a nevice. This is easily ascertained by trying it at a shorter range, say fifteen or twenty yards; and if at the former distance it concentrate its charge in the size of a tea-cup, it certainly does carry too close, and should also be laid aside. But this | must add, that of all the guns I have ever seen, handled, or shot with, which amount to a pretty con- siderable number, I have never seen one which shot too closely. Nor do I believe that a gun ever did carry too closely, provided that it did not lose force by supereroga- tory friction, for a good shot. For it is the simplest of all things, to a person who is continually making allow- ances on almost every shot that he fires, if he finds that his gun hits too hard and tears its game, when too near at hand, either to give the animal time in the open, and let it get away to a just distance, which is always the better plan, or in thick covert to shoot a little wide, so as to avoid raking it with the body of a charge. Generally, if one hear a person say that he prefers a scattering gun, he may be tolerably satisfied that it is be- cause the speaker cannot shoot with a close-carrying piece, or, in other words, cannot cover his object. Lastly, in regard of trials, it is not one or two shots that will thoroughly test a piece. Ten or twelve fires of each barrel, should the result prove satisfactory, and with little variation of effect, the same number of pellets, more or less, being put into the mark and through the last sheet each time, will be a sure proof of the quality of the gun, at the range of forty yards. A few shots may then be 4% 82 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. tried as corroboratory at twenty, thirty, fifty, sixty, and, as a matter of curiosity, with increased charges of powder and various elevations, at fancy distances, 70, 80, and upward, till you fail to touch the paper at all. ‘If, however, the gun perform thoroughly well, and to admiration, at forty yards, it will do so at all distances, and may be held capable of all that can be asked of wood and iron. It must be remembered, lastly, that by increasing the quantity of powder to an equal charge of shot, you in- crease the force and velocity. but detract from the close- ness of the shooting; and vice versé. A light charge of powder and a heavy one of shot will tell wonderfully for closeness, but not all for strength. With wire cartridges, however, the results of charging are precisely the reverse of this. The heavier the charge of powder, the closer the cartridge places its shot, as well as the farther. The reason is obvious. The utility of the cartridge arises from its power of keeping its shot together after being propelled from the muzzle, which it leaves as a single ball. According to the stiffness of the cases, this quality endures longer, and the cartridges are graduated and distinguished as blue, red, and green—the latter being fit only for sea-shooting, and often going several hundred yards before they burst, though they ought to open at 70, and deliver their shot, at its best, at 100. Therefore the heavier the charge of powder, the farther the cartridge is sent unbroken, and the closer will the shot be planted at any given distance. I should, perhaps, add to this, in order to obviate the THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 83 possibility of mistake, that these trials are directed for a general fowling-piece of 31 inches and 14 gauge. For ducking guns of all descriptions, a longer distance will be required correctly to test their properties. For the double-barrelled duck guns which I have recommended for river or marsh shooting, of ten lbs. weight, three-foot barrels and 8 or 9 gauge, fifty to fifty- five yards should be the distance with loose shot, and the picce ought to execute at that range with the same effect as the lighter gun at forty. The great fowling gun, again, of 16 lbs., four foot bar- rel and 5 gauge, ought to do its work with three or four ounces of shot, at sixty-five yards, as powerfully and with as much penetration as the others at forty and fifty-five. Beyond this, I have nothing to say in regard to the choosing a gun. If he will follow the instructions laid down above, the merest novice who wishes to buy, may be sure of getting what he asks for, and is willing to pay for. The quality of what he gets, must, after all, rest with the amount that he is willing to pay. I shall now proceed briefly to teach how to use the gun when it shall be chosen. How to carry; how to clean; how to load; how to learn to shoot it. I cannot make a man a crack shot, but I can show him how to be a safe one. “ Legere et seribere,” says J. Cypress, Jr., “ est pedagogi sed optimé collineare est det.” Reading and writing come of schoolmasters, but a crack shot is the work of God. THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. Arrer becomirg possessed of a good gun, in accordance with the means, object and idea of the individual, the one thing essential is to know how to use it. And this know- ledge, once acquired, lasts for ever, yet does not last u:- changed, or, like most sublunary things, change only to ceteriorate ; for what is at first acquired with difficulty and iuch painstaking, gradually becomes a habit, ripens into a second nature, and, constantly improved by practice, by experience, by freshly-discovered resources and trials of the power of the weapon, shall be at last, almost, as it were, an innate instinct, acting without deliberation or THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 85 forethought as if on the profoundest calculation, and ac- complishing results, in the twinkling of an eye, to arrive at which scientifically would require the solution of intri- cate problems. The master of his gun once, moreover, is master of the art for ever, and of all guns; and let what improvements or changes soever take place in the science, none will occur, in which he will not immediately participate, and find his aucient superiority still available. For all improvements simplify, facilitate, add, in a word, to the power of the weapon, or to the celerity of the performance, or to the convenience of the performer. If the change render it more difficult to shoot well, it is a retrograde step, not an improvement. Jor example, the percussion system is now, in spite of all old-fashioned prejudice and opposition, an admitted improvement on the old flint-and-steel system; and one, not the least, of its advantages is, that it has so much simplified the art of shooting flying, that there are now ten good shots, where there was one, forty years ago. Consequently, the person who had learned with much toil and labor to shoot excellently with the old flint lock, took up the new percussion piece, and found himself at once, with no farther trouble, twice as good a shot as he was before. It was to him as if his old gun had suddenly doubled its celerity and accuracy of aim. It is certain that no good shot, with flint and steel, ever found himself a bad one with percussion, even on the first trial. Equally certain it ix, that, take twenty crack shots with the per- cussion, and give them the best and most perfectly finished 86 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. Joe Manton flint-and-steel lock, and the first week they will not kill three fair shots out of ten; in any given timc, not one will shoot as well as he did with his copper caps, and probably one half of them will never become respec'- able shots at all. In the like manner is it, of all other improvements; it is comparatively easy to advance from skill in an unira- proved art, with the improvement of the appliances, %o excellence. It is almost impossible, excellence being attained with worthy implements, to retain that excel- lence practising an inferior method, which must be re- learned with inferior means. Now, in using the gun, there are three principal points to be considered ; so that the art may be properly divided into three heads: How to use the gun safely—that is, with the least possible danger to yourself and others; how to use it effectively—that is, with the greatest power of bringing down, under all circumstances, the. object at which it is directed; how to use it serviceably—that is, so that it shall be always ready for service, so that it shall suffer the least from being constantly used, and endure the longest wear and tear without deterioration. The maxims for using a gun safely, are few in number, and simple; but they can never be infringed without seri- ous risk, either to the shooter himself, his companions, or innocent, unconcerned bystanders. No one has a right to incur these risks himself, from mere carelessness, much less to inflict them on others. In my view of the facts, there are extremely few cases of accidents with fire-arms, as they are called, involving loss of life, which do uot THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 87 argue the last culpability; and I wish that, by the law, they were rendered culpable misdemeanors, and punished with fine and imprisonment, instead of being regarded with sympathy and commiseration. The first is, never, under any circumstances, whether you know it to be loaded, or believe it to be unloaded, point your gun, or allow it to be pointed, in the act of handling or carrying it, toward any perso1. This is the only sure rule of safety, and it is an easy one; for, like all the rest, after a time it becomes an instinct to carry a gun, so that the carrier, and those around him, shall all be alike safe from the consequence of an accidental discharge. Such discharges, on the con- trary, though care miy lessen their frequency, can never be entirely prevented. A thumb will occasionally slip from a striker in the act of cocking the piece; a brier will catch a trigger or hammer; a foot will miss its stephold, and a fall explode the cap; lastly, the casual failure of a portion of the lock may let off the gun, without the least maladresse, inexpertnes., or negligence on the part of the shooter. Unquestionably, no man ever shot constantly for many years, who has not had his gun discharged in his hands inadvertently, without his intentionally pulling the trigger, on some occasion; although with a careful, ob- servant, and expert person, such occasions will be rare indeed. If such things happen frequently to a person, however safely he may carry his gun, he must be an in- curably inexpert bungler, one of those unfortunates whose fingers are all thumbs; and with such persons there is but one course to take—aot to shoot with them at all. 88 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. There have been several patent inventions of stops of various kinds for preventing the discharge of a gun, even on pulling the trigger, unless the piece be actually at the shoulder, and the holder intend to fire. I utterly disapprove of all these; first, because they tend to encourage carelessness directly, by making the person trust to the infallible quality of his gun, which can- not go off, instead of to his own caution ; secondly, be- cause, however good in theory, I never saw one which was certain in trial; in proof of which I can say that I have never been so often missed, or so nearly shot, as by some brilliant genius letting his gun go off, in the very act of demonstrating the impossibility of its going off; thirdly, beeause all the stops I have ever seen, do occasionally prevent the discharge of the gun when the holder wishes to discharge it. Therefore, I uphold care and constant observation, as the only sure gravitating stop. First, then, in carrying the gun, it is necessary so to carry it, that, if discharged, its contents shall fly harm- less, as regards yourself or others. It will be found necessary, for relief to the muscles, in a long day’s shooting, to carry the gun in many various positions; but in all it may be carried so as to render its casual discharge nearly harmless. If carried on the right forearm, with the butt backward and the trigger guard on the arm, the muzzle should point directly to the ground. If on the right shoulder, with the gripe in the hand and the locks on the shoulder, the muzzle should point directly upward. If on the shoulder, with the butt backward and the barrels grasped in the hand, the muzzle should point THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE It. 89 directly to the ground. If on the trail, the muzzle should be pointed directly forward ; but the gun should never be so carried, unless when the shooter can sce that there is no one in front of him. If in the hollow of the left arm, with the gripe lying in the hand, and the barrels diagonally across the person, the shooter must see that no person is, or can be, in range of it; so also, when, in walking up to a point, or to game marked down, he bears his gun with the muzzle diagonally advanced, his hand on the trigger guard and his thumb on the striker; or, when he levels the gun, in the act of taking aim, he is bound to see that no one is in the line of fire. There is a very safe way of carrying a gun in thick covert, where you expect snap shots, which I have seen little practised—it is to gripe the stock with your right so that the forefinger can command the trigger, and the thumb the striker, and, with the left on the barrels imme- diately before the trigger guard, to bear the piece perpen- dicularly, muzzle upward, with the elevated rib toward the body, almost in the attitude of a soldier presenting arms. If a bird rise, a simple and casy movement simultaneously drops the sight to its level and brings the stock to the shoulder; while in forcing his way through coppice, it assists rather than hinders the shooter, by parting the branches before his face. I recommend its practice as worthy of attention. Than these, I know no other way in which it is allow- able to carry a gun under any circumstance: Next, as to the condition of the locks, in carrying a gun. When a piece is loaded and capped, the strikers 90 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. must never, under any possible circumstances, be let down, much less carried down, on the caps. This is the more to be observed, because it is Ly far the most common, and commonly conceived to be the safest, way of carrying a gun. I do not think I ever saw a countryman carry his gun otherwise, until indoctrinated with much labor into doing so. It is infinitely the most dangerous way in which a gun can possibly be carried, for these reasons: First, any blow on the back of the striker, while it is down, will cx- plode the cap and discharge the gun, as may easily happen from a fall on a stone or on hard ground, without either raising the hammer or touching the trigger. Secondly, a branch or brier catching the hook of the striker, drawing it back any where short of the half-cock catch, and then releasing it—as it will do twice out of three times—will infallibly fire the gun. At half-cock, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the same brier or branch will bring the striker to full- cock, and then no harm is done. In the hundredth instance the piece would be fired. Irom personal experience I may say that I have, probably, in the course of my shooting, had my locks full- cocked from half-cock, from fifty to one hundred times— fired from half-cock never. At full-cock, a gun can be discharged only by a branch or brier catching the trigger; then it must invariably be discharged. No catch of the striker can do any mischief. Consequently, the comparative safety stands thus: There are two accidents, by which the locks with the THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 91 strikers on the nipples may be discharged, and by cither of these they will be discharged nine times out of ten. There is one accident, by which the lock on the full- cock may be, and by that it will be, invariably discharged. There is only one accident by, which the lock at half- cock can be discharged, and by that it will not, ninety times out of a hundred. I never, to conclude, object to shooting with persons who shoot with their guns habitually carried at full-cock. Most quick shots always do so; and some argue, with some show of reason, though I do not agree, that it is safest so to do. I have shot for years with men who do so, and never saw an accident occur; besides which, they are of necessity careful. With no man, who carries his strik- ers on his caps, would I walk in company ten minutes, much less hunt a day with him. To load a gun, which has been recently fired, leave the striker of the barrel just discharged, down upon the cap which it has exploded; let down the other to half-cock, or, if at half-cock already, let it stand there; drop the butt, so that the piece shall stand perpendicularly before you, with the trigger guard and ramrod toward your face, at about a foot distant from the body. Hold the barrel lightly, at about two inches below the muzzlc, between the three first fingers and thumb of the left hand. With the right draw out the powder flask from the pocket in which you carry it; cover the orifice of the charger with your forefinger; invert the flask; turn off the charger spring with the ball of your thumb, giving the flask a slight shake. Let the spring fly back with a sharp 92 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. click, which will cut off the communication, and, if the flask be a good one, will obviate the possibility of an cx- plosion. I will here observe that Dixon’s patent flask, with the steel spring on the outside of the top, is the only one which ought to be used by any person who regards safety, convenience, and rapidity of loading. NORR-09 * In the little cut above one of these implements is shown, of the best construction, together with a double patent lever shot-pouch of Sykes’s patent, also manufactured by Dixon of Sheffield, and sold by all considerable gunsmiths. I esteem it preferable for convenience and quickness to any belt or contrivance I have ever tried, both for carry- ing shot and loading. The best material for the powder flask I hold to be tin, made in two halves, and soldered along the edges. It not unfrequently happeus, where ex- plosions take place in the horn, either from defect in the mechanism, or from carelexsness in the loader’s pouring the powder into the barrel without cutting off the com- THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 93 munication, that in flasks so constructed the two halves are simply blown asunder, instead of being stattered to atom, and that the owner escapes with a scorched, instead of a maimed, right hand. But to return to the loading. You then toss in the powder as quickly as is consistent with accuracy, return your flask, insert a cut wad in the barrel, draw your ram- rod, drive down the wad sharply and ram it home on the powder; .remembering not to grasp the rod, much less cover the tip of it with the palm of your hand, in ramming down, but to hold it only between the tips of your fingers and thumb. In case of an explosion, this difference in the mode of holding it will just make the difference of lacer- ated finger tips or a hand blown to shreds. For the same reason, never hold your nose over the muzzles, as if you want to look down the barrels; you can- not see the charge in the chambers, any more than you can find truth at the bottom of a draw well. Your powder home, drop the ramrod into the undis- charged barrel, by which you will ascertain whether the load has started on the firing of the first, as it will do sometimes, and create some risk of bursting a barrel, and if it have, will drive it back into its place. Pour your shot into the barrel you are loading, insert another cut wad on the top of it, ram it down sharply, and return the ramrod toits pipes. If, by any accident, a shot have run down into the barrel which contains the ramrod, do not attempt to draw it by force, which will only jam it harder, but in- vert the piece, give it a shake, and out will come both shot and ramrod. 94 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. You are now loaded—recover your piece, bring the lock to half-cock, remove the broken cap from the nipple, and see if the powder be up to the mouth of the orifice. If it be not up, there is much danger of the piece missing entirely, or making long fire; rap the lower side of the breech smartly with the hand, holding the nipples down- ward, which will usually bring the powder up. If it fail, try the cones with the pricking needle, and, if needful, pour in a grain or two of powder, put on the copper cap, and press it down tightly with the ball of the thumb, to insure its fitting so closely that it will not readily fall off. Nothing is so vexatious as a miss fire, and by these precautions, and the use of good materials, it is rendered all but impossible. Cut wadding for a double gun is indispensable; it is cleaner, more expeditious, safer. Tow and loose paper are both dangerous; the former from its liability to remain ignited in the barrels, and fire the second load, the latter from its tendency to slip, at the shock of the first fire, and leave a vacuum between the powder and shot, which will often produce a burst. Wads can be readily cut at home from pasteboard, cards, old bandboxes, old lats, or the like, with a cutter, which always accompanies a good gun, numbered accord- ing to the calibre, a mallet, and a piece of sheet lead, on which to rest the substance to be cut. They are, however, to be bought of all sizes, in boxes of 250 each, at all gun- smiths’ shops, so cheap as to render it a waste of time and trouble to cut them, unless in an emergency, when the THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 95 stock is expended, and there is no store at hand whence to replace it. There was formerly sold a patent metallic English wad, which I approved, both on account of the small bulk it occupied, and that it kept the gun clean; I have, how- ever, seen none lately, and they seem to have gone out of fashion. A species of medicated or oiled wad is now scld for the same purpose ; and it is recommended to mix a few with the common stock, so that one will be occasionally used, as it is claimed to clean the barrels. These I neither praise nor the reverse. Ido not know what medicament is that applied, and some are highly injurious to metal. The best gunpowder for upland shooting, by many de- grees, in my opinion, is Curtis and Harvey’s diamond grain, No. 2; next to that, Pigou and Wilkes’, and of late years, an admirable Scotch powder—I believe the Roslin mills. But I consider Curtis and Harvey’s the cleanest, quickest, strongest, best, that I have ever tried. Dupont’s American powder is undoubtedly strong—perhaps stronger, if strength alone were the test, than any other—but it is so irremediably filthy, that I abominate the sight or men- tion of it. It were not too much to say, that ten shots fired with Dupont’s powder foul a gun more than five and twenty with any of the reputable English or Scotch powders. I consider the best powder that ever was invented for large guns, especially for sea shooting, where the salt air decomposes the ordinary qualities, to be Hawker’s duck- ing powder, manufactured by the same makers I have named, with preference, above. 96 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. Any of the anticorrosive English copper caps are good ; I think Walker’s the least so, and Starkey’s central fire water-proof the best. Ihave kept these a weck in a tum- bler of water, and known them to go off without a single miss or long fire. Eley, celebrated: for his famous car- tridges, has invented a cap lined with India rubber, which is said to be superlative, and to answer for punt guns, over which the spray is continually falling so as to render extra expedients necessary to secure sure firing; these, however, I have never seen. All the good London makers now manufacture their own caps, which to furnish to their customers, and I have never used better than some from the house of Moore & Gray, Hdgeware Road. With regard to the sizes of shot, there is much differ- ence of opinion. I consider No. 8 sufficiently heavy, unless in case of birds being unusually wild, when I would use No. 7, or what I greatly prefer, Hley’s cartridges of No. 8, for all upland game, all the year through. Even at fowl, I am convinced that most men err both in loading too heavily and in firing too large shot. No. 4 is, in my judgment, as large shot as any fowling-piece can ordinarily carry. No. 2 is large enough for any thing except geese, out of any gun, but for them one may use BB, or Eley’s green cartridges with SSG. The farther rules for safety are these: never get into a wagon without taking off your copper caps, even if it be only for a drive of ten minutes; and it is well also to wipe or brush the nipples, after removing the caps; for the percussion powder will occasionally adhere about the THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 97 orifice, and will explode under a blow as readily as the cap itself. On going into a house, never take off the copper caps. Men often do so, thinking thereby to render them safe in case of their being'thrown down by dogs or played with by children. In that case, the only safe plan is to place them where none of either the probable offenders can get at them. The danger in reality, is increased tenfold by removing the caps; for to do so is to represent the loaded gun as unloaded and innocent. Nothing but a very small boy indeed takes up a capped gun, without perceiving it to be loaded ; and it is rarely, if ever, with such pieces, that acci- dents happen. With loaded guns left uncapped, scarcely a week pass- es, but we see that some unhanged idiot has had, as it is glibly termed, the misfortune to blow out the brains of his sweetheart, wife, or child, by capping a piece which he supposed to be unloaded, and snapping it at the head of his victim. The writer can only say that, should he ever sit on a jury where one of these unfortunate gentlemen shall be tried for such an accident, his misfortune will probably be increased by having to serve out a sentence for manslaugh- ter, or murder in the second degree, in the State prison. One would not suppose it necessary to write for the information of sane folk, that it is not altogether safe to put the muzzle of a gun into his mouth, and then for one to pull the trigger with his toe. I have, however, within a month, read of two deaths 5 98 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. occurring so nearly in this manner, that I am led to doubt the inutility of the caution. One genius, having got the cleaning rod of his rifle jammed, so that he could not withdraw it, cocked the piece, took the rod in his teeth, pulled might and main, and finding that it still did not come, pulled the trigger with his toe. I am sorry to say that it is stated, although I do not altogether believe it, that the cleaning rod and ball both went out at the back of his neck, without doing him much harm. I say I am sorry, for if the story be true, such a fool ought not to live. In the other case, the sufferer wished to ascertain if his piece were loaded or not, by trying whether the air would draw through it. To this end he clapped the muzzle into his mouth, and began to suck; then, remembering that so long as the striker lay down on the nipple, that alone would prevent the ingress of the air, he proceeded to half-cock the lock with his toe. Of course, his toe slipped, and very naturally his brains were blown to the four winds. It must not be supposed, that these ‘modern in- stances” are either jokes or “weak inventions” of the author. The former anecdote appeared in the columns of the National Intelligencer, the latter in the New York Daily Times ; both relations bearing every mark of authen- ticity, the names of the sufferers, the time and place of their exploits, though not the verdict of the coroner, which one might conjecture would run in the old style of “ sarved ’em right, too.” Who shall say, after this, that it is unnecessary to THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 99 state the danger of pulling triggers with the muzzle in the mouth ? I shall now, for the sake of continuity, alter the order in which I have heretofore considered the modes of using the gun, under the three heads‘into which I first divided the subject. The learning to shoot, and the various details and de- grees of shooting, are in themselves an art, and I therefore prefer to treat them separately, postponing them to what is for the most part mechanical, and, however useful, and indeed necessary to be known, easily explicable to and at- tainable by any person, not actually deficient in intelli- gence. It is hardly necessary to say, that the residuum of the gunpowder exploded, and of the igniting substance of the copper caps, has the effect of producing the worst sort of oxidization of the metal of the barrels, in a greater or less degree, according to the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere. The finest barrels are rusted the most easily, and suffer the more detriment by rusting. Of course the fouler the gun, the greater the evil that arises from its being left foul. In hot weather barrels suffer infinitely more than in cold, and in wet than in dry. When dampness and heat are combined, the mischief is yet augmented; and, prob- ably, the worst conditions that can be supposed are when to dampness and heat a salt atmosphere is superadded. No man, who owns a fine gun, or any gun which he values, ought ever to put it aside after use, without clean- ing, even if he have fired but a single shot. 100 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. Again, every man who loves his gun should make it a point to clean it with his own hands. It is all very well in Europe, where the sportsman has a gamekeeper at his elbow who knows how to clean a gun, better than he does himself, and who takes as much pride in having it clean as he, to trust it to his servant. I have shot, more or less, twenty-five seasons in Amer- ica, and having body-servants all the time, never had one to whom I would intrust the cleaning of a valuable piece. I have always cleaned my own gun before sleeping, or if I have been too much beaten with work to do so, have in- variably, after seeing it as well done as a man could accomplish at night, given it a thorough and fresh going over, before using it in the morning. The mode and process is as follows: Bring your locks to half-cock, take the ramrod out of the pipes, and the barrels out of the stock, screw the brass jag into the lower end of a solid cleaning rod—not one of the trumpery, jointed ebony or mahogany sticks which come in the gun-case—but a tough, seasoned hickory staff, of nearly half an inch diameter, about four inches longer than the barrels, with a saw-cut handpiece. Wrap the jag as thickly with the finest and cleanest tow, as the bore of the barrels to be cleaned will admit. Moisten this tow, and insert it into the muzzle; plunge the breeches of both barrels into a bucket of cold water, some four or six inches deep. Some persons advise hot water; not so I. Hot water cakes and hardens the dirt in the barrels; cold dissolves and loosens it. Work the rod up and down, like the sucker of a pump, first in one barrel, then in the THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 101 other, constantly changing both tow and water, until the former comes out of the barrels unsullied; the latter can be pumped through them pure and limpid. Should the barrels be leaded, which all writers say occasionally occurs after very hard and very rapid shoot- ing, when they become so much heated as to melt the shot in its transit, so that a part adheres to them—though I confess that a leaded barrel is a thing I have yet to see— a wire brush, or a little fine sand sprinkled on the tow, may be used. If the brush, it should be of brass wire, as softer, and less liable to scratch the polish of the barrels than iron; if sand, the less the better. I have never used either in my life; and T have, at times, shot very hard— to the extent, I doubt not, of several thousand shots in several single seasons, and my guns have always been in as good condition as those of my friends and neighbors. I have adhered to a practice, however, which I strongly recommend to others, of having the breeches of my gun taken out at the expiration of every shooting season, by an experienced gunsmith, so that the whole interior may be inspected, and the least flaw, morsel of extraneous matter, or rust spot, detected and removed, if judged ne- cessary, by dry reaming. The barrels thus cold washed, wipe them dry exter- nally, and pour into the muzzle of each, from the spout of a tea-kettle, nearly boiling hot water, until they run over at the brim. Reverse them and let them drain, standing erect in a corner, in the sunshine, on the hob of the kitchen grate, for five minutes, or by the register of a hot- air furnace. Wipe the cleaning-rod dry, replenish the jag 102 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. with clean dry tow, as much as you can force into the muzzles, work it up and down as quickly and sharply as you can, constantly changing the tow, until not only no touch of moisture is sensible on the swab, but the barrels are perceptibly heated through by the friction. It is not an unlaborious piece of work, I assure my readers; and if they be, like the royal Dane, in a degree “fat, and scant of breath,” they will puff and blow, and their muscles will complain before the task is accom- plished. Nevertheless, the work will be well repaid by the performance. The tow may now be moistened, at the most, by two drops of clarified oil, of which anon, and may be run down each barrel. The cavities around the nipples, and all the exterior grooves of the barrels about the ramrod-pipes, elevated ribs, &c., should now be rubbed clean with a bit of flannel, or the finger of a kid glove stretched over a slip of pine wood, and then brushed lightly with a proper brush—a soft tooth-brush is as good as any—moistened, as before, with clarified oil, and rubbed with a piece of chamois leather or buckskin until dry; the striker, and above all the cavity of it, which impinges on the nipple, should be cleaned out, and oiled and dried in the same manner. But, unless the gun has been exposed for a long time to small penetrating rain or snow, has been immersed in water, or been thoroughly saturated with salt air, or unless some obstacle or hitch is perceptible in their work- ing, I do not recommend the removal of the locks. Every time they are removed and replaced, something is lost of the exquisite finish and fitting, where the wood- THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE It. 103 work and the metal come together; which is one of the principal points of superiority in London-made guns to all others; it seeming impossible in them that the air itself, much less a mote of dust or a drop of dampness, should penetrate the accurate suture. The lock-plates externally should be rubbed and oiled, _ as should the trigger-guard, the heel-plate, and, in fact, all the iron work of the stock. The wood, which in the finest English guns is now put up merely in oil, with no French varnish to be scratched at the first encounter with stock or stone, and thenceforward always to show bruised and ragged, needs only plenty of elbow grease and a little furniture oil to keep it in perfect condition. The ramrod must be oiled, reinserted in its pipes, and the gun is clean, ready to be shot again to-morrow, or to be laid by in its case until once more wanted in the field. If the latter, lay a treble-folded linen rag, dipped in the clarified oil and pressed dry, between the striker and the nipples; lay a single fold of the same over each muz- zle, and force it down with a wad ins.de it, about twa inches into the barrel. Clarified oil is made by putting a handful of rusty nails, old iron, or shot, into a bottle of the best salad oil. In less than a month all the impurities of the oil will sink and collect about the metals, and the residue, when drawn off carefully, instead of itself promoting, will prevent oxidization. “ From the peculiar construction of detonating locks,” I quote from a clever little English work by “ Craven,” under a title similar to my own, “they should not be 104 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. snapped either with or without the copper caps, except in the act of shooting. When the gun is loaded, the flash of the detonating powder never enters the inside of the bar- rel; but if snapped upon the caps, when the gun is un- loaded, it drives the detonating gas into the barrels, which creates rust;* and if done without the caps, the works are liable to be injured, by reason of the cocks meeting no resistance in their fall, as in flint locks. “The detonating pegs, cones, or nipples, will last a season’s hard shooting—” I have known them to last half a dozen—“ but should by no means be used after the holes are worn large by repeated firing; as it will weaken the force of the gun, and damage the locks.” Should it be found necessary to remove the locks— and this will be necessary whenever the gun shall have been immersed in w.ter, exposed to heavy rain, snow, mist or salt air, and whenever any roughness or rigidity shall be discovered in the working of the locks, and advisable at least so often as at the beginning and end of every season—the mode of doing so is as follows : Take out the lock screw, which passes through from the left to the right side immediately in front of the cock; and with a gentle shuke, or a very slight tap on the inner side of the strikers, the locks will be dislodged from their places. Onno account, in case of their adhesion, insert any thing between the wood and the metal of the locks; to do so will invariably bruise the softer substance, injure * This gas is far mere injurious to the metals than that evolved from the combustion of gunpowder, or than that arising from the two powders in combination.—H. W. H. THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE Ir. 105 the close fitting of the parts, and make way for the admis- sion of rain or water. I will here observe that bar-locks are by far the better. Back-action locks, though they were at one time the rage, do not ordinarily work so smoothly as the others, in con- sequence of the form of the scear-spring, and, unless the stock be made thicker and more clumsy in the gripe, which is in itself both an eyesore and a defect, materially weaken that part of the gun. If the lock, when taken off, be bright, clear and dry, nothing will be required but to wipe it off with a bit of dry wash-leather; woollen stuff is not so good, as bits of the lint or thread are apt to remain behind ; to brush away any dust or old oil which may remain about the joints and screws of the springs from the last cleaning, with a dry feather, and then with the same instrument to apply a very small quantity of oil, clarified as above, to those parts which work one into the other. If, however, rust be any where established, or if much dirt and foulness be coagulated in places where it cannot easily be got at, it will be necessary to dissect the locks. To do so, the following rules, published on the first introduction of the percussion system by a leading Lon- don gunmaker, are the best and safest to follow: “J have found it a good plan, on taking the parts asun- der, to drop the screws, keeping them carefully unmixed, into a dinner-plate, containing clarified oil to the depth of the eighth of an inch, and to wipe them dry with a piece of wash-leather before replacing them. The same thing may be done, advantageously, with the nipples when taken * 106 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. vut of the breeches, and in this case it will be well to draw through the tubes a needle well charged with floss silk, which will collect and remove any oil which may have en- tered, and which, if suffered to remain, when the gun should be loaded, intervening between the powder and the cap, would, almost certainly, cause a miss, or at least a long fire. -“ Let down the cock. “Cramp the main spring sufficiently to remove it,” with the small lock-vice which accompanies every com- plete gun-case; but be careful not to over-cramp, as one may so break or injure the spring. “Take off the bridle. “Press scear against scear-spring with the forefinger and thumb of the left or right hand, according as the lock may be a left or a right one; and having, with the fore- finger of the other hand, pushed back the cock as far as it will go, let the scear-spring go back gently, when the pivot of the scear is easily lifted out of the hole, and the scear taken out. “Turn out the scear-spring screw, and take out the spring. “ Unserew and take out the cock.” To do this, by no means wrench it off by forcing a screw-driver between the cock and the plate, but loosen it by gently tapping the in- side of the cock with a bit of soft wood. “Take out the tumbler.” This done, wipe all the parts thoroughly dry, remove the dry rust, if any, by means of a little oil and a bur- nisher, lightly oil the whole machinery, again wipe it dry THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 107 with a piece of wash-leather, and it is ready for recon- struction. “To put them together again, put in tumbler, and screw on cock, so as to be down. “Put cock rather backward, and screw on scear-spring. “Push cock back as far as it will go; put pivot of scear into its proper hole, and then taking hold of scear with the thumb, and of the top of the cock with the fore- finger of the right hand, ifa right-hand lock, and vice versd if a left, compress the spring, and move the lock forward and down. “ Push forward the swivel, so that it may not interfere with the screw, and drawing the cock a little forward, slip the two holes in the bridle upon the heads of the scear and tumbler pivot, and screw on the bridle. “ Having let down the cock, and pushed forward the swivel as far as it will go, cramp the main-spring, hook the end of it on the swivel, move it up to its place on the lock plate, and unscrew the cramp.” When a fine gun is to be laid aside for any considerable length of time, during the absence of the owner, or under such circumstances that it cannot be readily examined and overhauled, the following plan will be found admirable for its preservation. Stop the orifices of the nipples with small pegs of pine wood, plunge the barrels, breech downward, into hot water, pour into the muzzles melted lard, tallow, or suet, carefully tried out and clear from salt, until the barrels are com- pletely full; oil them copiously, without, with pure clari- fied neat’s-foot oil, or loon-skin oil, which is better ; and if 108 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. laid away for half a dozen years, they will be found, when cleaned, in perfect condition. To clean them, plunge the barrels, as before, into hot water, and stand them near the fire until the grease within, being completely liquefied, can be turned out; the barrels should be then washed, dried, and cleaned as usual after a day’s shooting, the pine pegs removed from the nipples, and they will be ready for any service. Loon-skin oil, mentioned above, is thus made. Out away with a sharp krife all the fat, nearly half an inch in thickness, which comes away, adhering to the inside of the skin, when the bird is flayed; try it out in an earthen pot or crucible, purify by inserting old nails or shot for ten days, draw off the oil, and bottle. It is the sovereignest thing in the world to prevent rust, especially the rust arising from sea-air; I learned the use of it from observing that the gunners at Barnegat, Egg Harbor, &¢., constantly, when out on the bays, keep a piece of loon-skin in the pocket of their pea-jackets, and therewith wipe, from time to time, with the fleshy or fatty side, the metallic parts of their fowling-pieces. Perceiving the effect of this, I improved on the plan, by trying out and bottling the oil, and from long trial can pronounce it the best detergent and preventive of rust. A few words on the rifle, that most American of all fire-arms, as adapted to sporting purposes, and to field use as opposed to target practice, and I pass on to more inter- esting, if not more indispensable portions of my subject. The ordinary old-fashioned rifle of the American back- woodsman, which did its work of extermination on the THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 109 red Indian, and the fatal volleys of which told with effect so deadly on the disciplined battalions of England during the wars of the Revolution and of 1812, has had its day ; it is superseded ; crowded out of its place by newer and more puissant arms; its mission is ended, whether in the field of the chase or of real warfare. It was a ponderous, unwieldy, long, ill-balanced barrel, of weight so great, as, while it was rendered thereby irk- some to carry, and difficult even for a strong man to fire but from a rest, to prevent all recoil, and to make it as steady almost as a fixture in any hands capable of balancing or aiming it. The ball was ludicrously small, varying from 80 to 120 tothe pound, and the charge of powder in proportion. The object of the hunter was extreme precision at exceed- ingly short ranges, the densely wooded wilderness, which was alike the hunting ground and the battle field, present- ing insuperable obstacles to seeing an object, much more drawing a fine sight on it, at a distance exceeding a hun- dred yards. To this must be added, that in the old days of scouting, Indian fighting, and forest hunting in the Atlantic States, both lead and powder were matters to the woodman worth almost their weight in gold—that it was desirable to get as many bullets, as could by any means be compassed, out of a pound of lead, and that so valuable a thing as a charge was never to be wasted, unless with the certainty of bring- ing down an enemy or sending home a meal. In the state of the country then prevailing, a shot was oftener obtained within fifty yards than beyond that 110 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. distance; and it may be assumed that within one hundred, a ball of one hundred to the pound may be lodged in a stationary mark, by a hand and eye used to such shoot- ing, with such precision as to insure death to the object aimed at. At this time the art of gunmaking of all kinds was rude in the extreme, and the commonest of all prevailing errors was the almost universal belief that extreme length of barrel, whether in the rifle or fowling-piece, produced corresponding length of flight to the missile. Rifle barrels were not unfrequently made of five feet and upward in iezgth, and the ball was made to take two or more spiral perfect revolutions within the barrel previous to its expulsion. The art was in its infaney; and as no pieces were made which could outshoot these old-fashioned clumsy implements, while, from certain necessities of his position and habits, certain peculiarities of his character and temperament, the American backwoodsman became perfect in the use of the weapon, the weapon itself came to be regarded as perfect, and itself and the marksman who wielded it, were regarded with mingled apprehension and admiration. Still it was never adopted by any other nation, and never has been used, in the true sense, as a sporting weapou—I mean as one used to kill game for a sport and pastime, and not for the value of the game. Its extreme inadaptibility to rapid firing, especially at things in quick motion, its comparatively limited range, the want of weight in its ball, which, unless it hits its object directly in a vital spot, is of little moro effect on large game than a THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE Iv. 111 pellet of shot, all combined to render it inefficient and un- popular. It was soon found, moreover, that it was the weight and not the length of the barrel that did the work—that a half rotation, or, as some insist, a third, within the barrel, gives all the rotatory motion to the ball which is desirable ; and lastly, that weight in the ball itself is necessary for dis- tant firing correctly, independent of the fact that an ounce bullet, inflicting a wound not of necessity mortal, will disable a man or animal, where one of 120 to the pound will be carried off, harmlessly for the time, in the very vitals. With this came the first change. The short ounce-ball yager rifle was adopted generally on the prairies against large quadrupeds, and was found to outrange the small piece infinitely, and, with equally good shooting, to plant its balls as accurately. For a long time the double-barrelled English London- made sporting rifles were the ne plus ultra of the weapon, placing both their ponderous balls with extraordinary powers of penetration in the same spot at three hundred yards, and doing their work fatally at twice that dis- tance. During the period of Huropean improvements in this arm, science made no advance in America, save in what may be called the frivolities and fripperies of the art. Target-shooting from rests, with telescope sights, patent- loading muzzles, and other niceties, very neat, and doubt- less telling also in the practice-ground, but wholly useless and ineffective in the field, came into vogue with all the rifle-clubs and companies of nearly all the original thirteen 112 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. States, owing partly to the disappearance of those species of game against which it was employed. In the European armies the soldier’s rifle, though effective at long ranges, was ill-finished, clumsy, and not by any means a weapon with which to allow men, much less to teach them, to become first-rate shots. The first move in the right direction was the heavy British two-grooved military rifle with the belted ball. Its range was found to be what was then thought immense, its precision great, and it was an available, manageable, telling, and killing weapor. - As a sporting piece, it still to a certain degree holds its own, though it has one bad fault—a fatal one for troops in active warfare—that it clogs in rapid firing, and soon becomes so foul as to render it impossible to load. This in turn was superseded by the Minie rifle, used by the French chasseurs de Vincennes, the principle of which is duplex. First, it contains a hollow projection, sharp-pointed, running from the base of the breech per- pendicularly into the chamber, which bursts the cartridge when it is driven into it, and through which the igniting power of the cap is carried directly into the centre of the charge. Secondly, the ball is so contrived as to expand, after the impulse is conveyed to it, fill the grooves of the barrel, and cut its way out, instead of merely holding its way out by means of the cuts made in it, as it was forced down in loading. This weapon has made a complete revolution in the art of war. The Minie rifle executes with such precision at such ranges as to render all other fire-arms useless. A THE GUN, AND HOW TO DSE IT. 113 good shot can, and does not unfrequently, bring down his object at 1000, and even at 1500 yards. Artillery have been silenced with it before they could come into grape- range; and such is its appalling force and penetration, that at the bloody battle of Inkerman, the Minie bullets, falling into the serried columns of the Russian foot, were found, in many instances, after the fight was ended, to have pierced three and four men in succession, inflicting ghastly and fatal wounds on all. To this otherwise formidable weapon, a breech-loading principle has been adapted in Europe; but it is as yet slow, incomplete, and in one, which seems hitherto to be admitted as the best weapon of the kind, the Enfield rifle, liable to clog after firing, so as to render it difficult or impossible to load. We now come to the various American patent arms, recently invented; and one of these I consider as, beyond all doubt, the best rifle ever invented, and destined to supersede all others, both for the chase and for actual warfare.—I mean Perry’s breech-loading rifle. TI have already had occasion to speak of the revolving and breech-loading principle, as applied to fowling-pieces, and have given my conviction that no advantage is to be gained by the adoption of either. On coming to consider the same principle, as applied to the rifle, we must dis- tinguish between that weapon as required for military and for sporting purposes; the qualifications of the two being widely different. For the former purpose, it is often necessary to fire a maximum number of shots, at a vast range, in a continu- 114 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. ous stream, with great successive rapidity, almost in a minimum space of time. For the latter, to fire two or three shots almost insiu - taneously, either at one animal constantly in motion, 22:1 increasing its distance from the firer, or at two, or poss.b"; at three animals starting before him, simultaneously, «:..1 going from him at great velocity, is the ne plus uliic. Of revolvers, there are several kinds recently introduced, two of which are noticeable. Colt’s and Porter’s patext revolving arms—the former, on account of its celebrity and excellence, as a@ pistol, for use in brief, rapid encoun- ters; the latter, on account of its utter worthlessness for any purpose. As applied to a military rifle, Colt’s revolv- ing chamber fails, for several reasons, Jfirst, it cannot be made of sufficient calibre to carry any ball of telling weight, at long range, without being monstrously unsym- metrical and unwieldy. Secondly, after four or six shots have been discharged, the cylinder must be removed and reloaded by a slow and complex operation, during which the bearer is virtually unarmed, and liable to be ridden over by horse or charged with the bayonet, while unable to offer any resistance. Thirdly, it is difficult to be cleaned. Fourthly, it cannot be loaded, at all, but by means of its own peculiar apparatus—which lost, it is all but useless. Lastly, if injured, or out of order, it cannot be repaired by any ordinary armorer or gunsmith. As a military weapon, therefore, it may be pronounced useless—this objection not being understood as applying to cavalry or boarding pistols, to be used only during close, rapid combats of a few seconds or minutes’ duration, THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 115 without continuous firing. For these are of admitted ex- ceellence. For sporting purposes, though the rapidity and number of its discharges are all-sufficient, the difficulty of loading, the want of sufficient calibre, and the consequent failure at long ranges, are conclusive against it. Morcover, it is clumsy in the hand, and singularly un- sightly—nor are these slight or trivial objections; for of two guns, the one symmetrical and the other the reverse, the former must needs, ceteris paribus, shoot the better ; as being the more handy and manageable in taking aim. Porter’s rifle has a perpendicularly revolving cylinder, loading on the outer edge; and if any flaw should occur in the metal, causing an internal communication between the chambers, so that a discharge should ensue, four or five of the balls would take effect on the person of the firer, and the whole fabric would be burst and blown to atoms. Add to this, it has all the faults ascribable to Colt’s arm, with this in addition to them: that aim is taken not along the barrel, or over the axis of the ball, but along a sort of outrigger, divergent at the base and con- vergent toward the muzzle of the piece. By an arrange- ment of screws, it can be so adapted, that these two con- vergent lines, the one made by the sight of the shooter and the other by the flight of the ball, shall meet at any given distance; beyond which they will necessarily intersect. But, when once regulated for one distance, if fired at an object much nearer, the lines will not meet by some inches or feet; at one much farther, the lines will cross, with the same effect of missing the object, however true the aim. 116 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. It is therefore, at best, a weapon which can only be used cflectively at one, known and given, distance; and is utterly useless at any other range, until the difference shall have been calculated, and the machinery rearranged —an operation requiring time, and, of course, utterly in- consistent with field service. Of breech-loading pieces, we will say that they are the great desideratum of military gunnery; that the superior- ity of them to muzzle-loading arms is greater than that of percussion to flint-and-steel locks; perhaps as great as that of musketry to archery. For sporting, however, the gain is not so great. No breech-loading rifle has probably ever been made, with which the best and most rapid marksman eor'1 fire two shots, loading for the second, at one animal running at speed away from him, or across him-- unless it were, once in a thousand times, on a perfectly open and level plain, at a very large object—much less could bring down two animals in quick succession, leaping up and taking flight at the same moment. In point of rapidity of firing, therefore, for sporting purposes, no breech-loading rifle can ever equal, much less surpass, a finely made, accurately-sighted, double-barrelled hunting rifle, such as are turned out by Purday, Lang, Moore and Gray, and other London makers. The obstacles to the success of all former breech-load- ing arms have beeu—First, the difficulty of so arranging the juncture of the chamber with the barrel, as to prevent the escape of the gascous ignited fluid, at the moment of discharge. If this subtle fluid escape, it will speedily eat THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE Iv. 117 away the metallic faces at their point of junction, so as to render the arm useless; independent of the fact, that if, as must necessarily be the case, the escape vent be contiguous to any portion of the shooter’s person, this fluid will. seriously scorch him, and may set his raiment on fire. Secondly, the liability of the movable portion of the arm, and the crank which turns it, to become clogged by foul- ness, after repeated and rapid firing, so as to be bound, stiff, and, at last, wholly immovable. Thirdly, the com- plicity of their workmanship, the difficulty of cleaning them, their liability to get out of order, and their incapa- bility of ordinary repair. Fourthly, inadaptability to any but their own peculiar ammunition; and lastly—their want of symmetry, and consequent unfitness for fine, rapid, accurate and workmanlike shooting. To two of these faults, and two of the most serious of these, Sharpe’s rifle, which has of late acquired sb much Kansas notoriety, is with justice held liable. The gaseous fluid does escape dangerously, where the two metallic facea slide one against the other, so much so, that I have seen a person seriously scorched, in fjring a few shots rapidly; nor can I doubt that, after a few hundred shots, the effi- ciency of the weapon would be seriously affected by the burning away or melting of the metal; as occurs in the vents of cannon and the touch-holes of flint-and-steel guns, after much rapid firing. The other fault is its ex- treme clumsiness and want of symmetry. Perry’s arm, which I have mentioned above, and of which a sketch is inserted below, is liable to no one of these charges. 118 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. I speak positively, on conviction founded on long use, frequent experiment, and most accurate examination. I have a rifle of this plan, carrying a ball of 80 to the lb. if round, of about double that weight, if acorn-shaped— which I have fired several hundred times, with my bare hand exactly under the point of junction, and never have been sensible of the least escape of gas; nor are either of the metallic faces in the slightest degree burnt, corroded, or altered in appearance, by the sharp firing to which they have been subjected. From forty to fifty shots have been fired in succession, with cartridges made from Dupont’s filthy gunpowder, and, though the operation of opening and reclosing the breech was, in a slight degree, checked, it was not seri- ously impeded. With cartridges filled with good sporting powder, I have fired thirty shots a day three days in suc- cession; without cleaning, for the purpose of testing its operation, and- have found no difficulty with the arm. The military pieces, both carbines and pistols, have the loading-breeches arranged to play somewhat more easily than those of finer fgbric; and I prefer the former, as equally free from the escape of the gas, and as more convenient in service. The weapons are—as will be seen at once from the fol- lowing sketch, displaying, first, the rifle closed and ready for firing ; second, the rifle with the trigger and trigger-guard turned forward, and the orifice of the chamber thrown upward, to receive the charge; and third, the loading- breech, taken out for the purpose of cleaning—singularly symmetrical, handy, and even elegant of form. THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 119 Ten shots can easily be fired, to hit the mark, by a practised hand, within the minute; and I have never taken in my hand any gun, which it is easier to bring to the shoulder and eye, on which it is more ready to take a swift and sure aim, or which shoots more truly or ata better range. It is extremely simple, the commonest smith being able to repair every part. No gun can be cleaned with greater facility, since, on the removal of the breech by the with- drawal of two pivots and a guide-screw, the light is ad- mitted to the interior of the barrel, at the base, so that the smallest speck of dust or oxidization can be at once detected and removed. The base of the loading chamber, which receives the charge, is furnished with a hollow thorn, or tige, as it is 120 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. termed in the Minie rifle, which tears the cartridge, and, being inserted by a screw, is itself removable, so as to render the chamber also pervious to light, air, and water, for purposes of cleanliness. No ordinary gun can be cleaned so rapidly and thoroughly ; nor can it be ascer- tained of any other, so surely, whether it is clean or not, before laying it aside. To this may be added, that it is the safest of all arms ; since, while loading, the trigger is removed from the lock on which it operates, and the cone with the copper-cap subtracted from the hammer, not returning into position so as to be subject to discharge, until the chamber is again locked into its place as conjoined with the barrel. The ordinary load is a cartridge, containing the powder and ball, or slug, which is merely thrust into the chamber, when it is torn as described above; and so soon as the guard is drawn back to its proper place, the arm is ready for firing, inasmuch as, if desired, it is a self-primer. The stock contains a long hollow tube or reed of brass, enclosing a spiral spring, which, when filled with thirty copper caps, is inserted at the butt, and at every return of the breech to its place after the cartridge is received, the old cap falling off as it is deflected, fits a fresh one on the nipple. A peculiarity however, and a most important one, of this arm is, that, should the supply of proper cartridges run out, it can be loaded quite as readily, though not quite so fast, with a common horn and patched bullet, as with its appropriate charge; or, that if by any chance the breech should become fixed, it can be charged like any other piece THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 121 from the muzzle with a ramrod; and that, either when thus or otherwise loaded, it can be capped by the hand, precisely after the manner of any other variety of the firelock. With the cartridge, hand-capped, it can be fired delib- erately five or six times in the minute; and I should think, though I have never tried it, three or four times, if not more, with loose ammunition. If these, however, were the only recommendations of this arm, it would have been needless to waste words upon it, as applicable to sporting purposes. But it has another unrivalled superiority to any firc-arm I have ever seen—its range and power of penetration. The small-calibre gun, of which I have spoken, does its work tellingly and killingly at ranges which used to be considered impossible, three and four hundred yards’ dis- tance. But the short cavalry carbines of 22 or 24-inch barrel carry a round ball of 4 0z. and an acorn-shaped one of twice the weight, which does fearful execution at 500 paces. I have seen a round ball, from one of these short pieces, pierce two three-inch wet oak planks, at a foot distance asunder, and then bury itself, eight inches deep, in the body of a tulip tree. The military rifle of the same pattern with a ball of about 3 oz. round, } oz. conical, has been proved capable of striking the size of a horse at the enormous distance of 1400 yards, and with a force as fatal as its range and accuracy are tremendous. Tried before a military board in Canada, against the Minie rifle, it beat that queen of weapons, as it has been 6 122 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. styled, out of sight, in all the three great desiderata—ac- curacy, range, and force of execution. All these points being taken into consideration, I am inclined to prefer Perry’s breech-loading rifle, even as a sporting weapon, to any gun ever yet invented ; adopting, for that purpose, a very simple modification of its ordinary form. For use in close covert, and still more on horse- back, in which condition, whoever has tried it knows that it is almost an impossibility to load a rifle, its superiority is inconceivably pre-eminent; and, even in common use, the saving of the actual labor of forcing the patched ball down a foul barrel, is a matter of no inconsiderable moment. A good rider might load, fire, reload and fire again, a carbine of this construction, while sitting in his saddle, with his horse at full speed, almost as readily as he could do so on foot. For buffalo-hunting, in the great plains, no weapon could by any means compete with this; and were I about to stake my life on the continuous and uuvarying perform- ance of any fire-arm I have yet tried, this is that on which I should determine the risk. The cause of its superior carriage is simple and casily explained, and is due to its peculiar construction; pro- ducing by a different mode the same effect as is obtained by the expansive bullet which forms the peculiarity of the Minie rifle. In the ordinary rifled-barrel the ball is driven down through an arrangement of sharp-edged spiral grooves, which cut it into ridges and furrows in its descent. On its projection, it passes out, retained in its position THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 123 within those grooves by the ridges previously cut in it; which mode of exit communicates to it the rotary motion, whence its efficacy. In the Minie rifle, the hollow conical ball is made to expand by a wedgelike appendage, forced into it by the explosion of the powder, and so fills the grooves, which had not previously acted on it, and cuts its way out, gain- ing its motion by its exit, not by a form impressed on it in its descent. In Perry’s arm, the chamber, and the ball inserted into it, are both larger than the grooved barrel, through which the latter is to be propelled ; and the pro- jectile, which enters the barrel, for the first time on the discharge of the piece, a perfect sphere, is found, after its emission, to be cut into an irregular cylinder, deeply grooved and ribbed. The effect of this in the attainment of accuracy is self-evident. Why the excess of friction does not, as theoretically it should, diminish the velocity and force of the projectile, I cannot explain. It would seem that so far from doing s0, it increases both. At all events, the matter is not one of theory, but of practised and established proof. These guns can be made to order, at the factory in Newark, N. J., of any dimensions, calibre, form, weight, and finish requisite. If, happily, the manufacture had been set on foot anywhere else, in the United States, the arms would, undoubtedly, have long ago attained the re- pute they deserve, and would have been in general use. But, according to the wont of the inefficient, unenter- prising, pennywise and poundfoolish system of business 124 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. of the twopenny community among which it is located, after being brought to perfection and proved satisfactorily, at some considerable expense, the small farther advance needed to set it in operation before the public, is not forthcoming ; and, in consequence, the best weapon in the world remains comparatively unknown, while half a dozen mere pretenders are reaping golden premiums. This arm can be, and is, made double-barrelled quite as effectively as single, and can be finished and orna- mented up to any desired limit. I should choose, for my own use, a double barrel to carry a conical ball of precisely one ounce weight, the round bullet being proportionably lighter, of from 28 to 80-inch barrel—the shorter length, if to be used principally, or much on horseback—with a weight of not to excced ten pounds. It should have a plain fowling-piece stock for quick shooting, and rather an open V shaped back- sight to facilitate rapidity of taking aim, though it might be furnished, also, with a telescope back-sight, und thread- and-ball end-sight, for target practice and rest firing. For off-hand shooting and real work in the field, such gimerackeries are useless and ridiculous. I should prefer the gun to be finished in plain blue steel, without any ornament or engraving, as easier to keep clean, less likely to absorb rust, and on the whole more sportsmanlike. Such a weapon can, I presume, be fur- nished of the best quality for about one hundred dollars, and I will insure it to shoot to the builder’s satisfaction, and to kill deer, horse or man, if held fairly on 1ts mark, at any distance from 500 to 1000 yards. THE GUN, AND TIOW TO USE IT. 125 The mode of selecting a rile to suit the shooter, is identical with that of choosing a shot gun. The way to ascertain its operation, is for the buyer to have it tried in his own presence, at arm’s length and at rest, at long and short ranges, with the wind, against the wind, and across the wind—which last, if it be blowing any thing like a respectable breeze, is the hardest test of all—by some one in whose shooting, if he be not confident of his own, he may have perfect reliance. If it execute quickly, surely and forcibly, he may be sure he has got what he requires. But, by all means, let him insist on trying it, or seeing it tried, in the open. No testing ina gallery of fifteen or thirty paces is worth sixpence, as a real proof, cither of the weapon or of the shooter; and none but a tyro would dream of purchasing on such a childish assay. Distance and penetration are the only true tests. At twenty feet a schoolboy’s steel cross-bow, with a deal bolt, will snuif a candle; at a hundred yards it will hardly hit a house. If, notwithstanding all that I have written, the hunter lean to the old single rifle, let him select one of not less than a 4 ounce round ball, seven or eight pounds’ weight, and 33 to 86-inch barrels, by any American maker, and he can scarce go wrong. If he want a supereminent double, let him pay Purday, Moore or Lang, of London, fifty guineas for his last and best turn-out, and he will not be disappointed; but in my mind, if he prefer a double, he will do well if he cause each barrel to be separately sighted at the breech and on the end, instead of in the ordinary method, which sights both intermediately along the dividing elevation. 126 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. What is lost of elegance in appearance, in this mode, will be more than overbalanced, whatever the gunmakers may say to the contrary, in precision of fire. And with these brief remarks on the rifle, and the mode of choosing it, I shall pass, with no farther pause, to the consideration of the modus operandi—the how to use the gun of whatever kind in the field; how to learn to shoot deliberately, accurately and correctly as to prin- ciples; how to kill on the wing, or at full speed, with loose shot, and how at rest, or in rapid motion with the single ball. This, after all, is the whole that I can attempt by pre- cept. Some men take to shooting almost by instinct, as a thoroughbred setter does to pointing and backing, de race, as the French have it, by the accident of birth; others cannot by any toil of practice or amount of indoctrination be tutored into acquiring it. The eye, the finger, the nerve, the temper, have all something, more or less, to do with,it; and, no more than a poet, doI believe that a crack shot can be made, save by the special ordinance of nature. Still if one cannot be made a poet, he can at least be taught the difference between blank verse and rhyme, between Milton’s Lycidas and Christy’s “ Old Unele Ned;” and, if he can never be brought to cut down his twenty consecutive shots, clean and quick in close covert, with the sang froid of an artist, he can, at least, be taught to fire his gun off without killing himself, his neighbor, or his dog; and, unless he be the clumsiest and slowest of the human kind, to kill a fair proportion of his shots THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE Ir. 127 decently and creditably, if not brilliantly or like an artist. It may be a consolation to beginners to know that a strong inclination toward field-sports and shooting rarely occurs, where practice, if persevered in, will not ultimately insure proficiency. Ina lifetime, I remember but two instances of men, passionately fond of shooting, who never could compass even the humblest mediocrity, but continued to the end blazing at every thing, slap-dash, hit or miss, and seemingly as well content to make a noise, as to kill game like a Lord Kennedy or a Captain Scott. In conclusion, no one need despair. The introduction of percussion locks has so simplified the art or science, call it which you may, of shooting on the wing, that it is much rarer now to find a dismally bad performer than a crack shot. The latter was in my boyish days, rara avis in terris ; nowadays, every second man is a fair shot, and every sixth, of those I mean who hold to the gun at all, an artist. In the mean time, that he has done wrongly, before he is punished; tlc great point to be avoided, the punishing him, so far as he knows, for no offence; that is, when he is ignorant of any wrong-doing. “When punishment is to be inflicted, it should be done with a sharp, tough, slender whip, capable of inilict- ing stinging, painful strokes, but incapable of cutting, as a cowhide; or bruising, as the heavy thongs one often sees used for the purpose. A stick should never be laid to a dog, unless it be a slender birchen twig, or the like, for it almost invariably bruises. The ears should on no account ever be pulled so as to give pain, for to do so is almost sure to produce deafness; though it is very well to pinch them gently as a sign of rebuke, and perhaps to box them slightly with the fingers, while rating and scolding the aui- mal. When intelligent, and kindly treated, it is remar.:- 160 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. able how sensitive dogs are to reprimand, and how in- tensely they dislike to be held gently, but forcibly, down, and rated and reproached for several minutes together by their master. I have a Newfoundland dog in my possession, certainly a most singularly intelligent and attached animal, which, after having committed any escapade and returned to fol- low at heel, if one turn round the head to look at him and merely say-——“ Ain’t you ashamed, sir ?”—will dodge from side to side, still keeping close to heel, in order to avoid the reproachful look, so as to render it impossible to catch his eye, and will follow, with his stern lowered between his legs, looking ludicrously disconsolate and unhappy, till he i: forgiven and again admitted to favor. ia conclusion, I would say, that to kick a dog under ary circumstances is an act of utter and unpardonable brutality—a bone may be broken in an instant, and a valu- able animal destroyed, when no such result is thought of, much less intended by the human brute, who practises the’ savagism, I once took all my dogs out of the hands of an other- wise undeniable dog-breaker, to whom I had determined to intrust three or four puppies, for no other reason, than that I saw him once punish a young pointer on the snipe meadows, where no rod or switch was at hand, by kicking him. Once a kicker !—T said to myself, a kicker always! and as I had no desire to have one of my fine young dog’s 1ivs broken, aud then be told that he had unluckily died of fits or of the distemper, I removed him from the strong THE DOG 161 probabilities of that fate; as I advise all my readers to do, under the like circumstances. Before I have done with this part of my subject, in order to avoid being misunderstood, I will add, that when correction is needed, it should be given, in kindness to the sufferer, in carnest, and once for all; so that he shall remember the infliction, and need no repetition. One sound flagellation, when really deserved, will do twenty times the good, morally, and not inflict half the suffering, physically, of twenty, or twenty times twenty, insufficient, teasing corrections, which keep the dog in constant agita- tion and irritation, without making him once really care about it, or remember it. A dog, when he has once learned what a whipping is, will be sufficiently warned by the mere sight of the instrument of flagellation, shown menacingly, with a word or two of objurgation. The menace must not, however, be repeated in vain, ov it will be a short time only ere it lose its effect, from the offender perceiving that no exe- cution follows. In such cases, with old knowing dogs, who are as much aware as their master that they are doing wrong, if they neglect warning and take no heed of threats, two or three smart cuts, with a long rating, is as good in its effect as half an hour’s flagellation. Where the offence is very grave, such as rushing in on a fallen bird, breaking point from jealousy of another dog, chasing violently heedless of the call, paying no attention to the call or whistle, refusing to come to heel or down charge ; where the fault evidently arises from wilfulness, and not from accident or 162 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. the casuzl wantonness of high spirits, as when a dog has been loug co.ufined without being shot over—then indeed chastisement must not hide his head. The sportsman should, however, always have a careful heed to causes, and to the actuating motives of his dogs, before he punishes. I have seen good, careful, true-nosed dogs flogged for flushing birds ; when it was evident to me, from their coming to the point instantly, and looking around with a deprecatory glance, that the fault was acci- dental, or, in fact, no fault at all, but the consequence of existing circumstances; perhaps the failure of scent owing to the state of the ground, or of the atmosphere. Again, J have seen a martinet punish dogs, what I call cruelly, for not sitting down to charge, on snipe ground, where the water was three inches deep and as cold as ice; when the poor brutes were standing to charge, perfectly passive, with cars and sterns lowered, and only failed to squat, on account of the state of the ground. But it is needless to multiply instances. In the former case, all that is desirable is a gentle ‘“ Have a care, Sir! Have a ca-are, Don!” in the latter, when a shot should be again fired on good dry ground, to insist on the charge being made in the most perfect style, with the paws ex- tended and the nose down between them. By the way! if a dog be at all unsteady, the only sure plan is to make him charge, whenever a bird rises, whether shot at or not. In fact, it is better always to make him do so, steady or not; and, if a retriever, never to allow him to gather a dead bird until he have pointed it. Thus much as to general rules, for dogs in general, THE DOG. 163 When we come to the several varieties, I shall speak some- what more largely ; but as this work is intended chiefly for young sportsmen and beginners, I shall not enter into dog breaking, of which they are not supposed to be capa- ble, even if in positions and circumstances where they might attempt it. Neither my subject nor my limits will permit. In like manner, diseases, remedies, except the very com- monest and most suuple, do not come within my subject or sphere; in such cases, the best thing to take is advice. Young beginners, who seek to cure by dosing and drugging, are pretty sure to kill. Those who wish to learn what is necessary of such things for accomplished sportsmen, will find what they want in “ Dinks and Mayhew on the dog; ” the former excellent authority on breaking, the latter on medicine ; in my own “ Field Sports; ” and in “ Blaine’s Canine Pathology,” and “ Youatt on the Dog.” Dogs should be warmly but airily housed ; heartily, but not heatingly, fed—old Indian meal, mixed with oat- meal, suppawn, is the best general food, with a small quantity of salt, which is a preventive against worms— occasionally some vegetables may be added, and once or twice a week, sheep’s-head broth, the water in which meat is boiled for the house, or greasy slops of any kind; milk and buttermilk, whenever they can be spared, are excel- lent additions—they should have abundance of water, abundance of exercise, be kept scrupulously clean and dry, and their condition and efficiency will well repay the care. The dogs most used by sportsmen in this country are, 164 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. or ought to be— The Setter; the Pointer; the Cocker; the Water-dog; the Newfoundland; the Deerhound; the Foxhound; and the Beagle.” To each of these I shall devote a few remarks, as to their characters, qualifications, points and uses; to the services and localities for which they are the best fitted; how to get them good; how to keep them so; and how to use them to the best advan- tage. I shall not go into minutia, of breeding or natural history—such disquisitions will be found elsewhere, in the works I have named above, and in many English books, which cannot be too highly recommended; I would par- ticularly specify Colonel Hutchinson, on Dog breaking; Scrope, on Deer stalking; Colquhoun, on the Moor and the Loch; and Hawker, on Seafowl shooting; who are the best authorities ou their several respective specialities. I may here add, that the field for wild-sports, and the market for sporting dogs, like the course of Hmpire, “westward take their way.” The failure of game in the Eastern and Middle States renders it yearly more and more dificult to break dogs on the Atlantic seaboard, or to obtain well broke dogs thereon. English broke dogs do not succeed any where in Amcrica, owing to the difference of the ground, the game, and the mode of hunting it. English bred dogs, how- ever, of all kinds, with the single exception of the Rus- sian setter, are the best for all purposes, indeed, the only dogs worth having. THE SETTER. First in the list of sporting dogs, without a moment’s hesitation, I place the Setter. For—although the pointer possesses many excellen- cies, among others greater docility, or rather, perhaps, greater retention of what he has learned, with less inclina- tion to run riot and require partial rebreaking, after he has long lain idle, than the setter—which qualities cer- tainly render him preferable for very young shooters, or for residents of cities who shoot but a few days in the 166 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. year—I must agree with that agreeable sporting English writer, “Craven,” that “the first place among shooting dogs must be awarded to the setter. “Tn style and dash of ranging, in courage and capa- city of covering ground; in beauty of form and grace of attitude; in variety of color and elegance of clothing; no animal of his species will at all bear comparison with him.” I will add that, in endurance of extreme fatigue; in supporting cold and wet; in facing thorny brakes and tangled covert; in travelling with uninjured feet over stony mountain ledges, across plains bristling with spiked sword-grass, or over burnt coppices ragged with jags and stubbs; and generally in working, day in and day out, for weeks, or through a season together, the setter distances the bravest pointers I have ever seen. His temper too is usually milder, he is a more affec- tionate and friendly dog—this praise is not, however, due to the Irish variety, which is apt t» be savage—and is, in my opinion, also a wiser and more intelligent and saga- cious animal; although he is so much more frolicsome, larking aud high-spirited, that it is, undeniably, more difi- cult to keep him in command, and more necessary to rule him with a strict hand and observant eye, than the pointer. For the made and complete sportsman, therefore, I without a moment’s doubt advise the adoption of the set- ter, especially for America, where, or at least in the greater part of which, almost all the shooting is either covert- shooting or marsh-shooting; for both of which branches of sport I consider one setter as eyual, for the quantity THE SETTER. LE of service to be got out of him, to two pointers, and for the satisfactory style of doing the work, and the cheerful endurance of the toil without suffering, yet more superior. On this subject, I shall quote the brief opinion of “a gentleman, a large breeder of sporting dogs,” froma work of “ Craven’s,” which I feel inyself the more justified in doing that he often, and once in this very work, borrows from me, not only not rendering credit where it is due, but. inventing a “ Mrs. Harris” in the shape of an American correspondent, to bear the weight of my offendings. “T have tried all sorts,” says he, ‘ aud at last fixed on a well-bred setter as the most useful. I say well-bred, for not many of the dogs with feathered sterns, which one sees nowadays, are worthy of the name of setter. Pointer fanciers object to setters on account of their requiring more water, but there are generally sufficient springs and peat-holes on the moors for them, and even in the early part of September a horsepond or ditch is to be met with often enough. For covert or snipe-shooting the setter is far superior ; facing the thorns in the covert, and the wet in the bogs, without coming to heel shivering like a pig with the ague. I have always found, too, that setters, when well broke, are finer tempered, and not so easily cowed as pointers. Should they get an unlucky unde- served kick, Don, the setter, wags his tail, and forgets it much sooner than Carlo, the pointer. My shooting, lying near the moors, takes in every description of coun- try, and I always find, that after a good, rough day, the setter will out-tire the pointer, though, perhaps, not start quite so flash in the morning. 168 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. “T always teach one, at least, of my dogs to bring his game, which saves a world of trouble, both in covert and out of it, but never allow him to stir for the birds until after loading.” The writer is an Englishman, which accounts for the allusion to the moors and the early part of September, which are not applicable to this country, but I preferred to let it stand and comment on it at leisure. Our summer shooting, in the hottest part of the year, from July through August, is only for woodcock, and lies invariably in wet ground, and almost invariably in covert; in no case, therefore, at this season is the setter likely to suffer from thirst, and so to prove inferior to the pointer, which really has the advantage over him in supporting extreme dry heat. Where the shooting is in thick coverts, the setter has the best of it. gain, in the autumn shooting, which does not com- jacace until the end of October, there is much more of cold than of heat to be endured, and, the springs and rivers being ordinarily full, there is never any difficulty of procuring enough water for the thirstiest of dogs. Oa the grouse-mountains in Pennsylvania, and among scrub oaks and burnt woodlands, I have found the’ well- feathered legs and full toe-tufts of setters to give them great advantage over the barefooted pointers, which I have frequently seen the necessity of hunting in buckskin boots. In the southern country where quail-shooting, or par- tridge-shooting, as it is there termed, is followed in sultry weather, the lands are so irriguous and so well watcred as THE SETTER. 169 a general thing, that the setter need not suffer, while the great preponderance of snipe and marsh-shooting gives him the preference. The only portion of the United States, in which I should consider the pointer preferable, is the dry prairies of the West, where it is frequently indispensable to carry out water for the dogs in grouse-shooting, which takes place in the intolerably hot weather, on those treeless plains, of August and the earlier part of September. A prodigious quantity of nonsense has been written under the pretext of ascertaining or deriving the original breed and stock of the setter—. ome writers insisting that he is a treble or quadruple mongrel, part setter, part pointer, and some add, part Newfoundland and part fox- hound. One sporting writer—wonders will never cease !—and he a man of some repute both as a sportsman and an authority, has actually given a receipt in one of his works, for manufacturing a setter. He desires the aspirant for the possession of a perfect dog of this breed, of which he records his own opinion, that it is the best in the world, to cross a foxhound with a pointer, and to recross the pro- geny with the low small Newfoundland of St. Johns. The offspring of this last cross is to be the given sctter. And this, as if there were not half a dozen pure and distinct families of setters reproducing themselves to the smallest distinctive mark of shape, coat and color, genera- tion after generation, in England alone, without taking into consideration the Russian and Irish varieties. He had precisely as well, in order to raise a London 8 170 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. dray-horse, have desired the breeder to cross a jenny ass with an elephant to give size, and then to recross the pro- geny with a bear in order to gain courage and a hairy coat. The truth, and it is now generally admitted—certainly admitted by all physiologists and natural historians—is, that except the spaniel, the setter is the oldest and purest of all the sporting breeds. In fact it is, itself, neither more nor less than a spaniel of the largest size, cultivated by the selection of the best types for parents, by superior food, good housing, and judicious crossing, not with dif- erent varieties of the dog, but with various families of its own distinct variety, until it has been brought nearly to perfection. The habit of setting or pointing its game, which is now an instinctive and natural qualification of its race, was originally an acquired trick, taught by diligent breaking. Centuries of tuition have rendered that acquired trick an hereditary gift, so much so, that no good judge of animals would now think a young setter worthy of being put into the breaker’s hands, if he did not point naturally and without instruction. This conversion of foreign and acquired tricks into hereditary and congenital powers, transmitted from sire to son, is extraordinary ; but this is by no means its most extraordinary phase. Every sportsman, who has kept and reared families of pointer puppies—in which variety, as I have said before, this retention of acquired habits is even more common than in the setter—must often have observed the whelps, under four months of age, when no instruction has ever been given them, nor have they acquired any THE SETTER. 171 apprehension of men, not only pointing the chickens and pigeons, in the stable yard or in the street, but backing one another in their points. Now backing is entirely, and from the beginning, a bit of tuition. There is no movement resembling it in the natural action of a dog, nor, if there were, could it be of any service to him ina state of nature, but rather the reverse. It is assumed, no one can say with how much plausi: bility or truth, that the assumption and retention of a stationary attitude, on coming upon a hot scent, is merely an adaptation to our uses, by the breaker, of a natural peculiarity of the dog intended by nature for his own behoof. On scenting his game and crawling up as he still does, almost on his belly, and elbows, to the immediate prox- imity of it, the animal naturally, it is said, paused, in some instances couched—as does the cat or leopard— in order to collect its energies and contract its muscles for the fatal spring. This pause, it is added, man has seized ; taught the animal to prolong it; and so adapted it to his own purpose. It surely can be no native instinct implanted by the Creator in the dog from the beginning; since no animal possesses an instinct, which to possess would be useless, much more injurious to itself. How a dog standing stock still, as if in a half catalep- tic state, with eyes glaring, lips slavering, tail rigid, back bristling, and limbs quivering with excitement, motion- less and attempting to effect nothing for ten minutes, or haif an hour, until the bevy of birds takes to its wings and 173 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. away, should help him in a state of nature to get his supper, is inconceivable; but that because one dog on scenting game assumes this strange position, his friend who is hunt- ing in company with him, instead —as one naturally would suppose him likely to do—of rushing to share the fun and partake of the spoils, should do the like, is far more won- derful; as, where it does not naturally exist, it is infinitely more difficult to teach. Naturalists have classified dogs under three principal, general divisions ; veloces, the swift; feroces, the savage; and sagaces, the intelligent; of which the greyhound, the bull-dog, and the spaniel are respectively the types. To the latter species belong all the dogs which hunt by nose, having as their anatomical character, according to Blaine, “the head very moderately elongated; parietal bones not approaching each other above the temples, but diverging and swelling out, so as to enlarge the forehead, and the cerebral cavity. This group includes some of the most useful and intelligent dogs.” The anatomical distinction first named is probably the cause, as well as the sign, of the superiority of this variety of dogs, as it gives room for the capacity of brain, which, whether in man or the inferior animal, invariably indicates and produces superiority of intellect. In all the spaniels proper, the eye is full, liquid, and speaking ; the nose well developed, with large and open nostrils; the coat silky, soft, and in some cases much waved, and almost curly. The colors of the various families of this variety are almost innumerable, varying from pure black, white and yellow, tan, liver and orange, to ring- THE SETTER. 173 streaked, spotted and speckled, with all these tints two by two, and sometimes three by three; as black and white, with tan spots about the eyes and muzzle, and tan feet. The ears are generally long and pendulous, and are the most curly part of the body. The legs, belly, and stern are deeply flewed or feathered with a long fringe of soft, silky hair, and the feet are protected with tufts about the ancles and between the toes, which afford much defence to these delicate portions of the body. Of this family, the setter of pure English blood is the largest variety, perhaps improved by culture—I say, per- haps, for I do not find any real reason for believing that it has been enlarged in the process of time, and there is certainly less distinction between it and some of the large varieties of what are called true spaniels, and which are in appearance pony-built setters, than between some of those varieties themselves, as the clumber breed and the King Charles. The only permanent structural distinction if it can be called so, is the size of the ear, which is smaller, and looks as if it had been rounded by art. This peculiarity is, however, shared by the Newfoundland dog, who is admit- ted to be spaniel. The coat also is somewhat coarser, though still in the best families excessively soft, silky, and beautiful, and waves rather than curls as in the proper smaller spanicls. Especially about the ears is this texture of the coat observ- able. Setters, however, differ in this respect, and I have seen dogs, and once owned one—and he was, perhaps, the very best I ever did own, a liver and white dog called 174 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. Chance—which was as curly about the ears and poll as aa ordinary water-spaniel. I do not know the pedigree of this animal, and it is possible, though barely so, that he might have a cross of water-spaniel in his blood. It is not, however, probable, for the water spaniel is an exceedingly rare dog in the United States, so much so that in a residence of five and twenty years, I have not seen half a dozen of the race. His character and conduct showed nothing of the spanicl, which is the most riotous and hard to break of all sporting dogs, for he was singularly docile, cool-headed, and, though the best retriever I ever saw, was almost, if not quite, the staunchest setter, both at the point, and the down charge. The chief cause of the question which has arisen con- cerning the origin of this beautiful and sagacious animal, it appears to me, is simply the new name, which with the improvement of field-sports, the subdivisions which have been introduced, and the nicer distinctions which have been of consequence required, has come into use, it would seem, within the last century. I find it variously stated, that the spaniel was first taught to set in the reign of Edward Ii., and that he is mentioned in a MS. treatise by the grand huntsman of that monarch, so long ago as 1307—and, again, that Dudley, Duke of Northumberland in 1335, first systemat'- cally broke in setting dogs. One objection, and a very material one, to the latter version, being the fact that Robert Dudley was not Earl, much less Duke, of Northumberland in 1335, but Henry Percy. THE SETTER. 175 A curious document, which is probably the earliest legal instrument of this nature on record, is in existence, having been preserved by Mr. Daniel in his Rural Sports, proving that in the seventeenth century setter breaking was an understood and regularly managed branch of business. Singularly enough, this document is a contract between a Worcestershire farmer and a namesake, and doubtless a collateral ancestor, of my own—siuce a branch of my family were early settled in that county—which would seem to show that I come honestly by my love of field- sports, as a matter of inheritance from past generations. “ RIBBESFORD, Oct. 7, 1685. “T, John Harris of Willdon, in the parish of Hastle- bury, in the county of Worcester, yeoman, for and in consideration of ten shillings of lawful English money this day received of Henry Herbert of Ribbesford in the said county, Esq., and of thirty shillings more of like money by him promised to be hereafter payed me, do hereby covenant and promise to the said Henry Herbert, his ex’ors and adm/’ors, that I will from the day of the date hereof, until the first day of March next, well and suffi- ciently maintain and keep a Spanile bitch, named Quand, this day delivered into my custody by the said Henry Herbert, and will before the first day of March next, fully and effectually traine up and teach the said Bitch to sct Partridges, Pheasants and other game as well and exactly as the best sitting doggers usually set the same. And the said Bitch so trained and taught shall and will deliver to 176 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. the said Henry Herbert, or whom he shall appoint to receive her, at his house in Ribbesford aforesaid, on the first day of March next. And if at any time the said Bitch shall for want of use and practice or o’rwise forget to sett game as aforesaid, I will at my cost and charges, maintain her for a month or longer as needs may require, to traine up and teach her to sett game as aforesaid, and shall and will fully and effectually teach her to sett game as well and exactly as is above mentioned. “Witness my hand and seal the day and year first above written. “JOHN HARRIS his x mark. “Sealed and delivered in presence of “AH. PAYNE his x mark.” The fowling-piece not being at that time invented, nor indeed brought to any perfection a century later, the object of breaking the spaniel to set was the netting of birds, which is now regarded as rank poaching. The training was, however, identical; and stanchness was, if possible, more necessary, inasmuch as drawing the net over the covey requires longer time than merely to walk up to the game, then than now. The price, as the value of money then stood, is very large. At all events, the pas- sage proves the antiquity of this mode of training, and further shows, at that day, that the identity of the setting spaniel with the other breeds of the same dog, was not questioned. It is worthy of remark, that the term setter is very recent; the animal, when all its present habits and char- THE SETTER. 177 acteristics were fully developed, retaining the name of spaniel. Gay calls him the ‘ ereeping spaniel,” and Thomson, that accurate observer and close describer of nature, thus writes of him, in terms that leave no question as to what manner of dog he alludes to :— ‘How, in his mid-career, the spaniel struck Stiff by the tainted gale, with open nose Outstretched,” &c. It is stated by Mr. Blaine, that the setter is still called in Ireland the English spaniel. If it be so, it would go far to disprove the generally received idea that the Irish setter is an original family, if not, as some suppose, the original stock. I doubt, however, both the fact, and the deduction. In my “ Field Sports ” (vol. i. p. 324), I surmised that “the Irish dog is undoubtedly the original type of the set- ter in Great Britain.” I have, since writing this, seen reason entirely to alter my opinion ; which was induced by the large admixture of Irish blood which has been introduced into many of the choicest English families, those especially which run to orange and white with black noses and muzzles; one family, in particular, with which I had most acquaint- ance. The races are, however, I think, now, where not intentionally interbred, entirely distinct. The English dog is distinguished by his inferior bone and stoutness; superior grace and delicacy; the greater length, silkiness, and curl of his coat; his blandness, affection, good-nature and docility ; in all which points Le 178 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. much more closely adheres to what we now call the spaniel, than does his Irish cousin. I am inclined to think that black, black and white, pale lemon-colored and white, and perhaps—though I speak this doubtfully—liver and white, are the true and distinctive colors of the English setting spaniel. I some- what doubt the liver-colored, because I observe, first, that it is distinctively the water-spaniel color; and secondly, that where that color prevails, onc is apt also to find a greater teudexcy to curl—another water-spaniel sign—in the hair, I also believe, that wherever orange or deep red is found in the English breeds, especially coupled with the black nose and palate, there is an Irish strain. Sure I am that, as a rule, though of course there are exceptions, the red or red and white dogs are the wildest and the most difficult to break. In choosing an English setter, the first thing to examine is the head; it should be broad and expansive between the eyes and across the brow, with a high bony process extending upward from the base of the skull to the ridge of the occiput. The nose should be rather long than broad, the nostrils well opened, soft and moist—the latter condition being a proof of good health and a sine gud non to the possession of great scenting powers. Tho eye should be large, soft, and bland, and the whole expres- sion of the face amiable and gentle. In this last point of physiognomy I put much faith— I never saw a good dog with a bad face; nor a thoroughly bad one, with an intelligent, open expression of counte- nance, : THE SETTER. 179 There is as much difference in dogs’ faces as there is in that of men; and I should as much expect to find the qualities of a Walter Scott, a Napoleon, or a Washington, in a being with the face of Hogarth’s bad apprentice or of a Jew prize fighter, as I should think to find a dog, with a cross, spiteful expression, a curt nose, thick jaws, and a narrow brow with a deep cleft between the eyes, a first-rate animal for intellect, memory and affection. For the rest, a pendulous jowl and hanging lip are a defect in a setter, as they are the reverse in a pointer. Medium-sized dogs are the best, both for endurance of work and for convenience of transportation ; besides which, I consider great size and heavy bone, especially if coupled with harsh coat, a symptom of coarse blood. A setter should be high and thin in the withers, snaky in the neck, roomy in the chest, long in the arms and quarters, short in the lower legs, round and cat-like in the feet, well fringed or feathered on belly and legs, and well furnished with pad and toe-tufts. The bone of his tail should be slender; however well, and it cannot be too well, feathered; his coat cannot be too soft and silky, nor can he, in all respects, be too beautiful. His beauty is a sign of the purity of his race; and in some sort—which I fear is rarely or never the case with us meh—an indication of superior intellectual qualifica- tions; but then it must be remembered that, although every dog is, at one period of his existence, a puppy, one never has heard of a canine fop, or, except in the old fable, of one who used a looking-glass. The points of the Irish setter are a mere bony, angular 180 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. and wiry frame, a longer head, a less silky and straighter coat, than those of the English breed. His color ought to be a deep orange-red, or orange-red and white; a com- mon mark is a strip of white between the eyes, a white ring round the neck, white stockings, and a white tag to the tail; all the rest deep red. Unless the nose, palate, and lips are black, they are not in Ireland esteemed pure; and I consider the point a test of blood and a proof of hardiness in all breeds; I doubt a liver-colored, and detest a flesh-colored, muzzle. The characteristics of the thorough Irish setter are, often savage ferocity of temper, always extreme courage, high spirit and indomitable pluck. They are naturally wild, and given to riot to the verge of indocility, require much breaking, I had almost said continual breaking, a jealous eye, a resolute will, and a tight hand over them. With these, they are of undeniable excellence. They are not, however, by any means the right kind for young sportsmen, or for any sportsmen but those who are constantly in the field whenever game is in season; for such, their hardihood and pluck renders them invaluable. They cross well with the English setter, if it can be called a cross, when it is but an intermarriage of cousins, and the progeny lose something of the temper and gain something of hardness. The only remaining pure variety of setter to be noticed is the Russian, which is rarely or never met with in this country. It is an admirable creature, docile, good and gentle, to acharm. Enduring, beyond any other race, of cold and THE SETTER. 181 wet, and dauntless beyond any other in covert, but more susceptible of heat and thirst than the others of his race. He is, I think, rather taller than the English or Irish dog, muscular and bony; his head is shorter and rounder than that of his family, and, like the rest of his body, is so completely covered with long, woolly, matted locks, tangled and curly like those of the water-poodle, only ten times more so, that he can hardly see out of his eyes. His color is black, black and white, or pale lemon and white., I never saw one of any other color. I never have seen a pure one, though I once owned a half breed—a most superior animal—in America, nor are they common or easily attainable in England. T learned to shoot over one in England, which I was permitted to take out alone, because it was well known ? that “ Henry could not spoil Charon;” and almost every thing that I know of shooting that old Russian taught me. He would not drop to shot, if a bird were killed, but dashed right in to fetch; yet I never saw him flush a bird of a scattered covey in my life; for if the fresh birds lay between him and those killed, he would set them all one by one. In the same way, if a hare were wounded, which he knew by the eye by some indescribable sign which no man could desery, he always chased and never failed to retrieve him. If he were missed or went away without a shot, he would charge steadily enough; but if two or three shots were missed in succession, particularly in the first of the morning, home he went in disgust, in spite of all threats or coaxing. 182 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. Russian setters have what is called more point, they couch lower, and steal in more silently on their game than any other dog, consequently they are the best in the world over which to shoot game, when it is wild. Could they be procured, I think of all sporting dogs they are the most adapted for ordinary American shooting, and the best of all for beginners. They have less style, and do not range so high as the English or Irish dogs, but that is no disadvantage for America, where there is so much covert shooting. Setters should range wide and swiftly, with the head well up; dogs which puzzle on the ground except on bad ecenting days, or in emergency on the cold trail of a wounded animal, have generally bad noses; they should, if hunting two together, cross each other regularly on their beat, if singly, quarter the ground evenly in front of the shooter; they should, at each turn, invariably cast forward so as not to come on old ground, and never cross backward, behind the shooter. This is a very bad fault, causing much delay and loss of time, and it is hard to cure when once acquired. The habit of quartering ground well is little under- stood, or taught, even by professed breakers in America, though it is of first importance. Most dog breakers are content, when a dog stands stanchly on his game, backs his comrade, drops to charge at the word, and retrieves cleverly, to let him run about the ground as he will at his own pleasure. There is no greater error. A dog, which does so, will beat much of his ground twice or thrice over, and leave THE SETTER. 183 much altogether untried, so that not only will much time be lost, but much game will be passed over. The man who shoots over dogs or a dog broken to quarter and beat his ground truly, will get twice as many shots on the same ground, and in the same time, with another hunting animals which meander at their own sweet will. If I must shoot over a dog unsteady at his points and unsteady at his charge, but a good ranger and quarterer of his ground, or over one as stanch as a rock, who ran about after his own pleasure, and were shooting a match, I would take the former, confident that I could make up by the quantity of game found for the other defects. These are the points which the young shooter ought to regard in choosing his dog, though, if he be wise, he will take some experienced friend to counsel. Let him remember, that it costs no more to keep a good dog than a bad one; that a dog properly kept, hay- ing been well bought at a proper age, lasts probably, apart from accidents, five or six years, or more ;—unless he be so unhappy as to live in Newark, New Jersey, where the in- habitants throw strychnine, the deadliest of all poisons, broadcast, in the streets, without the interference, if not by the direct encouragement, of the city government—that it is, therefore, the cheapest plan in the long run, to buy a good dog; and lastly, that there is no such thing as buy- ing a good dog at a low price. A well-bred, well-looking, well-broke setter, or pointer dog, has just as real a market value, apart from any fancy price, which may go to any amount, as any merchandise in 184 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. the world, and is exactly as sure—almost surer than any —to realize it; since there is always a greater demand than there is supply; and since gentlemen, as opposed to dealers, are rarely, if ever, tempted by price to part with animals which suit them. Many sportsmen would regard an offer as an affront, akin to that of proposing to pnr- chase his family plate or his family pictures. The best rule for teaching a dog to quarter his ground, and, when taught, to keep him at it, will be found in “ Dinks on the Dog,” as on breaking generally. The above precepts for choosing a dog by his action are equally referable to the setter and the pointer, although the latter is something slower, steadier, and closer in his ranging. Otherwise, there is no difference in their style of finding or pointing game. For it is a singular thing that in America, for some reason which I cannot compre- hend or conceive, and for which I never heard so much a3 a plausible conjecture, the pointer and setter lose the diz- tinetive action whence they derive their distinctive namc:. In England the pointer invariably stands his game, and almost invariably points it, by raising sometimes a fore leg, sometimes a hind leg. There the setter, if not invariably, at least nine times out of ten sets his game, falling prostrate as if shot, and lying so close as often to show only the tip of his erected flag above the stubble or turnips. I have often had a brace of setters go down so suddenly, when shooting in high turnips or potatoe ridges, the eye being casually off them at the moment, that it required some trouble to find them. When very close on their game good setters never THE SETTER. 185 fail to do this, and it is unusual for them to point except at hedgerows, or on running game. In America, wherever I have shot, East or West, in Canada or in the States, I have but ¢wice in five and twenty years seen a setter set, and then it was accidental ; so far as this, that the dog usually stood. It is worthy of remark also, that, on my first arrival in this country, I shot over a dog which was bred in my own family and which I broke myself in England. I do not think I ever saw him point in his old country; I know I never saw him set in his new. After I lost him, I for many years im- ported dogs of the same family, which traced back to Lord Clare’s red Irish breed and Colonel Thornton’s cele- brated black dog “ Death,” and always with the same re- sult—not one of them ever set. I should like vastly to arrive at something, concerning this strange point in natural history, but it defies conjec- ture. I omitted above to say that in my own opinion, for choice, perhaps I should rather say for fancy, the best colors for English setters are pure black; pure white— the latter very rare—red and white, or lemon and white, with black noses; black and white, or black and tan. Roan, or fleabitten dogs, whether red and white speckle, called strawberry, or black and white speckle, called blue, are unobjectionable. But I have something of a prejudice against liver or liver and white setters; as I regard the colors as belong- ing, of right, to the water-spaniel, or to the pointer, and therefore indicating the suspicion of a cross. In the 186 MANUAT FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. same way I always suspect red and white, or black and white, in a pointer, for the converse reason. J may here add that I regard the cross of the setter and pointer, com- monly known as the dopper, as an abominable mongrel. There is a breed of black and white and tan setters in the United States, known as the “ Webster setters,” the original stock having been imported by that great states- man, from, I believe, Lord Derby’s kennel. It has not generally turned out well, the blood generally showing softness and timidity in the field. To this I have heard of but one exception. I deem the color altogether doubt- ful and suspicious. Still it remains to be said that the old saying of horses stands good of dogs—that good ones are always of good colors, and that there is no absolute rule in these, more than in men, ““To trace the mind’s complexion in the face.” Before concluding my notice of this dog, I will add that I see lately a much lauded and advertised strain of blood quoted as the “ Harewood Setters.” Of the merits or alleged origin of these dogs I know nothing. But if they are attributed to the noble Yorkshire family of that title, I fancy there is either some error, or that the strain is very recent. I have known the late and the present Karls of Harewood from my childhood; I lived within six miles of their seat of the same name, and hunted regularly for many seasons with the late Harl’s foxhounds; I can, therefore, assert without the possibility of error, that up to my leaving England they had no distinctive strain of set- ter blood, but often used our Irish strain, of which I have THE SETTER. 187 spoken. They may, within the last twenty years, have gotten up a distinct family, but the time is short wherein for a breed to win a celebrated name—and as Lord Eldon said— ‘I doubt.” awe hy SQ LW Meee Me oRR=Co. s, © THE POINTER. Tus dog, which it may be admitted, whatever its intrin- si¢ or comparative merits, is the most suitable, for many reasons, to the use of the young sportsman, is not, at least in it8 present form, an original or natural animal. This is the more worthy of remark, because many modern writers, those more particularly who are opposed to the setter, have endeavored to discredit the latter by overlauding its rival, as if the pointer were the type, and the setter an offshoot produced from it, by some process of crossing. So far, however, is this from being true, that the pointer is itself a manufactured subvariety, although now so well established, that it appears capable of reproduction, like for like, even to the peculiar characteristics of indi- THE POINTER. 89 vidual families, almost ad infinitum ; whereas, as we have seen above, the setter, so far as cun be ascertained by any investigation, is the natural, aboriginal, spaniel stock im- proved by care and culture, but not by inter-brecding. The type of this dog is unquestionably, in the British isles, and the countries which have been thence supplied, the Spanish pointer; but how that variety of the genus arose, by what ccussing it was produced, or when it was first known, is now beyond ascertaining. It was first introduced into England when the art of shooting on the wing began to be general, replacing the old sport of netting birds, for which the mute spaniel, taught to set, since that time improved into the modern setter, had been used. Its ercct position while in the act of pointing, and its lower aud more careful style of rang- ing, as well as its superior steadiness, were the qualities which, on its first introduction, caused the preference to be given to it for open shooting; and such are, with justice, the superior excellencies still attributed to it, by those who prefer it to its rival, the setter. In form, structure and general appearance, the pointer would appear to be an intermediate link betwcen the spaniel, the smooth-haired hound, and perhaps the fero- cious dog of the bull type—the structure of the head, the cerebral development, and the olfactory apparatus clearly connecting him with the former species, his coat, his general shape, and his fine stern pointing to the gaze-hounds, and his heavy jowl, pendulous lips, broad chest, and crooked fore legs, assimilating him to the pugnacious varieties. The old Spanish pointer is now almost extinct in Hng- 190 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. land and America, and deservedly so; for, although his admirable powers of scent, not surpassed by those of any animal, and his great tractability, are undeniable points in his favor, he is an ungainly, misshapen creature, a slow- traveller, an awkward mover; and, though large-limbed, strongly-boned, and to an unpractised eye powerfully made, is for the most part so ill put together and slackly coupled, that he is incapable of long and severe work, except at a foot’s pace. The improved English pointer, which is the dog gen- erally in use under the name of pointer, is a cross of the original Spanish dog with the fox-hound, or the greyhound, or both—the union of the two affording probably the best existing form. There are now numerous subvarieties, in the shape of distinct families, raised and maintained by different amateurs in the British Islands and elsewhere, recognized apart by particular characteristics of form, color, and style; which characteristic peculiarities they transmit with the blood, all springing from some cross of the Spanish dog with some of the other strains indicated above, yet sufficiently remote from the original stock to allow of inter-breeding, without any danger of deteriora- tion from in-breeding, as it is termed, or incestuous breed- ing, so as to obviate all necessity of farther intermixture of foreign blood,as of the various hounds mentioned above. Of these English varieties, some are nearly as coarse, heavy-shouldered, and slow as the old Spanish pointers; some are almost as slender, thin-flanked, and whip-sterned as the greyhound; and some with decply feathered sterns and sharp noses, showing a strong cross of the fox-hound. THE POINTER. 161 The first of these varieties % faulty, for the same reason as the old Spanish dog; they do not get over the ground with sufficient rapidity to allow @a reasonable bag being made in reasonable time; they are apt to knock up, owing to their weight and faulty structure, and they are painfully ugly to behold. The second fails from the natural consequences of over delicacy ; his coat is tuo fine, he cannot endure cold or wet, he cannot face the lightest covert, he cannot do half a day’s work in proper form. If hunted alone, he will find little or no game, if in company with other dogs, he will do the backing to their pointing, but no more. He is a suihi- ciently worthless dog any where, but in America particu- larly worthless, because particularly unfit for those very specialities of work which he should be particularly fitted to perform—covert-shooting and snipe-shooting. For the former of these purposes the pointer is, I may say, never used in the British Isles; for the latter, when old and steady, he is generally preferred. The third variety is liable to two objections; he is apt to stoop too much, and puzzle for his scent on the ground, hound-fashion, instead of drawing handsomely with his head high; and he is inclined to run in and chase, especially on hares and rabbits, from which vice it is frequently very difficult to break him. The best form of the pointer is the medium between the first two varieties; and a dog of this kind, of the proper shape and style, well bred, well broken, and well hunted, will be found to do his work for courage, stout- ness, scent, and endurance of heat and thirst, as well as, if 192 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. not better than, any,otfter variety of dog that is used in the field. . For docil, tractability, and tenacity of memory, never forgetting what has been once thoroughly taught him, he is undoubtedly superior to all dogs; and, on this account, he is to be recommendcd for all beginners, for all occasional shooters, who have small opportunity for keep- ing their dogs in constant practice, and for all persons, in general, who are averse to extra trouble, and who, for the sake of having every thing to go on smoothly and in even tenor, are willing to sacrifice something of dash, spirit, style and show. The weak points of this dog, I have touched upon before; they are—want of endurance of cold and wet; which may be set off against their greater endurance of heat aud thirst; inferior dash, impetus and ability—not courage—to face severe, thorny covert; which may be set off against superior docility, tractability and steadiness ; and, lastly, somewhat inferior speed and stoutness, and decidedly inferior beauty, sociability, and affection to the individual who hunts them. For the young shooter, however, this latter inferiority is, perhaps, in some sort an advantage. The pointer is more apt to hunt willingly for anybody who carries a gun, whether he know him, or not; and hunts more after his own fashion, with less interfereuce from, or reference to, the shooter; nor is he so apt to take offence at the failure of his companion to kill the game which he has found for him, a habit which setters, espe- THE POINTER. 193 cially such as have becn much shot over by sure killers, often acquire and carry to a ludicrous extent. The true form of the very best kind of English pointer is so well laid down by “Stonehenge” in his “ British Rural Sports,” that I cannot do better than to quote the passage entire. “The points by which these dogs are generally chosen, are—First, the form of the head, which should be wide, yet flat and square, with a broad nose, pendulous lip and a square tip ; the pointed tip indicating too great a cross of the foxhound or greyhound. Secondly, a good set of logs and feet, the former strait and bony, and well set on at the shoulder, and the latter round and the pads hard and horny. Thirdly, a strong loin and good general devel- opment, with sloping shoulders. Fourthly, a fine stern, small in the bone and sharp at the point, like the sting of a wasp, and not curved upward. This form of stern, with a vigorous lashing of it from side to side, marks the true- bred pointer as much as any sign can do; and its absence distinguishes the foxhound cross, which gives a very hairy stern, with a strong curve upward and carried over the back; or the too great amount of greyhound blood, ‘marked by a small stern also, but by one whose diminution commences from the very root; while the genuine pointer’s is nearly of the same size, till within a few inches of the point, when it suddenly tapers off. Great injury has often been done by breeding in-and-in for many generations of pointers. A sportsman begins life by obtaining a brace which do their work to perfection, and he is the admiration and envy of all his sporting friends as long as they last, 9 194 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. which may be, perhaps, five or six years. From these he breeds others, which also maintain his fame; and he ex- pects to be able to continue the same plan with the same blood for fifty, or in some cases, sixty years. He is so wedded to it that he fears any admixture, and for two or three litters he does not require it; but at last he finds that though his puppies are easily broken to back and stand, they are small, delicate, and easily knocked up, and are mere playthings in the field.” Than these remarks, as to the points and formation of the pointer, I can add nothing. As I have before ob- served of the setter, of this dog also the medium size is preferable. It is more easily conveyed from place to place, whether in wagon, boat, or railroad car, and, if strongly built and well put together, will stand more work than a heavy, oversized animal. As to setters, again, and horses, so of pomters, it may be said that good animals are always of good colors; still there is a choice, and for reasons apart from real fancy or love of beauty. Colors more or less indicate races, and the prevalence of some colors, therefore, indicate more or less admix- tures of blood to be avoided, or sought after, as it may be." The pure original pointer colors, as drawn from the original Spanish stock, are plain unmixed liver color, and deep tawny, darker across the shoulders than elsewhere. Both of these, therefore, going with the thorough pointer shape, are undeniable. To liver and white, with a liver-colored nose, there is no possible objection as to genuineness, while the light THE POINTER. 195 tint is favorable as far more easily seen in thick autumnal covert, than the self-color, which greatly assimilates to the dead leaf. Lemon and white, orange and white, tawny and white, particularly if coupled with a black nose and lips, are, in my judgment, highly objectionable, as indicating a cross of setter, which I abominate in the pointer. Pure white is rare, but unobjectionable; plain jet- black is also faultless; but where the black and white are joined, I suspect foxhound blood; and if to these be added the smallest dash of tan, whether in the shape of eye- spots, muzzles, or feet, I am sure of it. Tan eye-spots are sometimes seen in plain black dogs; and there is a famous but rare Enzlish family so charac- terized; and if there be no white whatever, I should re- joice in the possession of a pointer so colored. So also in liver, and liver and white dogs, are tan eye- spots found and regarded as beauties, rather than defects. Lord Derby’s excellent kennel turns out admirable liver and white dogs, so characterized, and of a stamp well adapted to American shooting, as possessing perfectly pure blood, and quite sufficiently high and fine a strain, with- out over delicacy of coat, and with sufficient stoutness for rough work. There is little more to note in reference to the pointer; but there obtains a common error or prejudice in relation to one of his occasional characteristics, which it may be as well to refute. One of the marks, so common as to be almost an in- variable characteristic, of the old Spanish pointer, is what 196 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. is commonly known as a double nose; and, in my opin- ion, and that, I believe, of most real judges of the ani- mal, an exceedingly ugly characteristic, amounting nearly to a deformity. This double nose consists in a deep cut or furrow between the nostrils, causing them to a casual observer, and on a slight inspection, to appear disunited. In the French pointers, which are for the most part coarsely-bred, ill-made and worthless animals, this mark, owing to the superabundance in them of Spanish blood, is general ; and it is surprising to me that Mr. Youatt should describe it as ‘‘ materially interfering with their acuteness of smell.” This, however, is not the error which I propose here to correct, but the converse of this; which I have found, in all countries, particularly among uneducated or partially educated sportsmen, to be a prevalent idea—that this double nose is an indication of, and as it were a guarantee for, the existence of an unusually good nose in the animal so marked. This external furrow can, I conceive—and I am borne out in my opinion by the judgment of Dr. Lewis of Philadelphia, celebrated alike for his medical and sportsmanly abilities—have no effect or influence one way or other on the scenting capabilities of the animal, being wholly unconnected with the internal olfactory apparatus. How the idea should have originated, it is simple enough to see—the old Spanish pointer is, beyond dispute, an animal of superior powers of scent,’ and he is often double-nosed. Hence came the superstition that the supe- rior scent is due to the ugly furrow between the nostrils, though it might have been as well ascribed to the slack THE POINTER. 197 loin, or thick club tail, which are equally characteristic of the breed. So well established is this creed in my part of the country, that a neighbor of mine told me the other day, with great glee and exultation, that he had got a double- nosed setter, the only one of that kind he had ever seen, though he had seen many pointers such. He was urgent to know whether I had ever seena double-nosed setter, and was not a little astonished when I replied that I never had, and sixcerely hoped I never should ; for that, while in a pointer it is simply a deform- ity, of no actual consequence, in a setter it is a certain indication of a cross of Spanish pointer blood ; about the worst cross imaginable. It may be added, that the Spanish pointer is not unfrequently ill-tempered and surly. Of the action of pointers in the field, whereby to judge of them, I shall speak hereafter, under the head of Field Management. THE COCKING SPANIEL. Tun best of all dogs, beyond a question, for woodcock shooting exclusively, particularly mm the summer season, or even for autumn shooting in covert, is the spanicl. It is little known as yet in this country; and it is extremely difficuit to procure them, either purely bred or thoroughly broken, and unless they be both, no animal is more worth- less. In England, they are used entirely for all covert shooting, where dogs are employed at all, which is not the THE COCKING SPANIEL. 199 case in battues; the game, in these, as I must consider them, unsportsmanlike butcheries, being driven up by beaters. The reason of this preference of the spaniel is twofold. First, he does the work better than the pointer or setter can do it; secondly, it is an injury to the latter species to inure them to this sort of work, which is not suited to their habits, instincts, or style of hunting. Those dogs are naturally endowed with great range and speed of foot, and ought, if high bred and endowed with good noses, to stand their birds steadily at long distances. These are the points and excellences of fine setters or pointers; the proper stage for which is,-in England, the moors, or the open partridge stubbles and turnip fields ; here the prairies, for grouse, the open stubbles for quail, and the snipe marshes. If they be duly qualified to hunt these grounds in style, and to find their game fast and well in such situations, they will, in covert, range entirely out of shot, will proba- bly overrun and put up many birds, quite beyond the shooter’s range, or, coming to a dead point, at a quarter of a mile’s distance, with heaven knows how much brush and brier intervening, will be missing half of the time, or will have, instead of themselves hunting, to be painfully hunted up by their owner. Over and above this, being used to hunt under the constant supervision of the sportsman’s eye, where the least error is observed and the least fault rated, finding themselves under less restraint in covert, they arc apt to become careless and torun riot. To this habit they are 200 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. more particularly led by two causes, both of which must often occur in shooting in heavy coverts, especially in sum- mer, when the leaf is full—first, that frequently coming on points unobserved by the shooter, who has lost and cannot find them, they are kept standing such a weary time, on the game, that they become impatient, flush it wilfully, and come away unchidden, because unremarked. Second, that the shooter himself, instead of himself walking or beating up his game over the point, as he ought to do, too often, for the sake of securing a shot which, from the badness of ground or thickness of the brake, he would otherwise be apt to lose, hies the dog on, and encourages him to flush, at one moment, probably punish- ing him for doing the very same thing, some twenty minutes later. Thus it is clear that pointers or setters, when in the very best possible training and condition for open shooting, which is their natural work as well as their forte, are not suited for covert shooting. It is also clear that covert-shooting is likely to be disadvantageous to their steadiness, and to render them, unless carefully and judiciously hunted, wild and riotous. If, on the contrary, they are thoroughly broken and inured to covert shooting, they get into a slow, pottering style of work, lose their range, their speed of foot, and in a great measure their dashing style and carriage. Once or twice in a lifetime, one may find a brace of dogs so perfect, so steady, and so well up toall kinds of work, that they will range the opens at full speed, heads up and sterns down, and again when brought into covert THE COCKING SPANIEL. 201 beat every inch of a ground at a trot, and never stir out of gunshot of the sportsman ; but it is, as I have said, but once or twice in a lifetime. These are the just reasons, why pointers and setters are in England, rarely, if ever, used in woodlands. Here the case is altered, since with the exception of snipe-shooting on the marshes and grouse-shooting on the prairies, there is in America no distinctly open shooting. In the Northern States and provinces, especially, where autumn shooting is and must ever be the principal and choicest pursuit of the true sportsman, open shooting and covert shooting are so inseparably combined, from the habits of the birds pursued, that no line of distinction can be drawn. The quail, which is the principal object of pursuit, must be found and roused on his feeding grounds, in the stubbles, orchards or meadows, and, when once scattered, followed up and killed in the densest and heaviest brakes and coverts. To find them, the greatest speed and the widest range is necessary ; to finish up the scattered bevies in good style, the closest and most accurate, inch by inch ground, or foot, hunting. The perfection of the thing, if means permitted, would be of course to drive the open grounds with setters or pointers, and then, when the game should be driven into covert, to couple up these, and let loose spaniels wherewith to beat the brakes and thickets. This, however, would require such a number of dogs and servants to be kept, so large an expense and so sys- Q* 202 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. tematic a pursuit of the sport, with consequent expenditure of time and attention, as few or no American sportsmen are willing or able to bestow on what is, to most men, but an occasional and rare pastime. For the most part, then, we must rest content with our setters or pointers, and must satisfy ourselves with over- coming’ to the best of our abilities the difficulties which we must encounter. Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend it to such sportsmen as have the means, the leisure, and the oppor- tunity, to procure a brace of good and well broke cocking spaniels, at least fur summer cock-shooting. It is not only the true method, but it is far more exhilarating and exciting, it is less fatiguing, and, as it gives the sportsman far more opportunity of choosing his own position for shooting in the paths, runways and glades, instead of being forced to blunder into thickets in order to drive up his - game, it is by far the most killing mode. The spaniel naturally gives tongue on his scent the moment he strikes it, hunts it up with the rapidity of light, and springs his bird or starts his hare with a rush. By education he is made to hunt mute, or at most to express his delight at finding the hot scent streaming up to his nostrils by a suppressed whimper, to track the game foot by foot, pausing to note the vicinity and whereabout of the shooter, and to give tongue only when it is flushed. This steadiness and closeness of range and of dropping to charge the instant the shot is fired, and lying hard until ordered to “hie on/” is all that is required of the spaniel; but that ad/ is not a little; for the spirit in the THE COCKING SPANIEL. 208 small bodies of these active and indefatigable little ani- mals is of the most indomitable, and it requires steadiness, patience, firmness, equability of temper in the highest degree, and at times severity, to break them into disci- pline, and to keep them init when broken. But this once accomplished, they are all but perfection. “There can scarcely be a prettier object,” says Mr. Youatt in his admirable work on the dog, “ than this little creature, full of activity, and bustling in every direction, with his tail erect; and the moment he scents the bird expressing his delight by the quivering of every limb, and the low eager whimpering which the best breaking cannot always subdue. Presently the bird springs, and then he shrieks out his ecstasy, startling even the sportsman with his sharp, shrill, and strangely expressive bark. “The most serious objection to the use of the cocker is the difficulty of teaching him to distinguish his game and confine himself within bounds; for he will too often flush every thing that comes within his reach. It is often the practice to attach bells to his collar, that the sports- man may know where he is; ”—this precaution is far more necessary with the pointer in covert-—“ but there is an in- convenience connected with this, that the noise of the bells will often disturb and spring the game before the dog comes fairly upon it. “Patience and perseverance, with a due mixture of kindness and correction, will, however, accomplish a great deal in the tuition of the well-bred spaniel. He may at first hunt about after every bird that presents itself, or chase the interdicted game; if he be immediate- 204. MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. ly called in and rated, or perhaps corrected, but not too severely, he will learn his proper lesson, and recognize the game to which alone his attention must be directed. The grand secret in breaking these dogs is mildness, mingled with perseverance, the lessons being enforced, and practi- cally illustrated by the example of an old and steady dog.” “ This beautiful and interesting dog—” adds Dr. Lewis, speaking of the cocker, in his American Edition of Youatt —“ so called from his peculiar suitableness for woodcock shooting, is but little known among us, except as a boudoir companion for ladies. He is, nevertheless, extensively used in England by sportsmen for finding this bird, as also the pheasant; and no doubt, if introduced into our coun- try, would prove equally, if not more serviceable, in put- ting up game concealed in the thickets and marshy hollows of our uncleared ground.” There is no doubt that such is the case. An excellent and accomplished English sportsman, Mr. Joseph Tarret, who shot for many years in New Jersey with great effect and success, used these dogs exclusively, and few, if any sportsmen of the day could beat his bag. Dr. Lewis states in another passage that the larger variety of spaniel, known as the springer, is owned in the greatest purity in the Carrollton family, and is also in possession of Mr. Keyworth of Washington City. Captain Peel of the Royals, late of H. M. R. Cana- dian rifles, better known to the sporting world as “ Dinks” of Amherstburg, who has been recently serving in the Crimea, but may be shortly expected to return, has a fine THE COCKING SPANIEL. 205 strain of this blood, which I can earnestly recommend from my own knowledge and experience. The three varieties of spaniel principally used in pur- suit of game are the “ cocker,” the “ springer,” and the “ Clumber spaniel,” which is, on the whole, the best in all respects as a sporting animal. The cocker, a likeness of which, adapted from a mag- nificent engraving by Ansdell, is prefixed to this paper, is the smallest of the three varieties. He is seldom above twenty pounds in weight, has a short blunt nose, an excedingly full, soft, liquid eye, and bears a strong resemblance to the King Charles, and Blenheim breeds, with both of which he is, probably, more or less connected. His color is usually dark orange and white, or lemon and white; sometimes black, white, and tan, or plain black and white, and yet more rarely black and tan. This last color is ascribed by Mr. Youatt to an admixture of terrier blood; but I think incorrectly. I would attri- bute it wholly to the King Charles blood, with which the cocker shows much connection, and the most when he is of this color. The snub nose and large soft melting eye of the cocking spaniel is as remote as possible from the elongated, sharp muzzle, and keen quick visual organs of the terrier. “These dogs,” says Stonehenge, ‘have very delicate noses, and work well in covert for a short time, but are soon knocked up, and cannot compete in endurance with either the springer, or the old English spaniel.” They are the liveliest, the prettiest, and the most active of the whole family. 206 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. The springer is somewhat larger, “‘ has a smaller eye,” I quote from the Manual of Rural Sports, ‘and a more pointed nose, and with a more impetuous nature than the cocker, requiring more coercion than he, and far more than the Clumber spaniel. He is generally of about thirty pounds weight, with a party-colored coat of liver and white, yellow and white, or black and white.” All the varieties should be hung “ with ears that sweep away the morning dew,” should have coats long, soft, waving—not curled, except about the ears—and glistering as floss silk. Their tails should be short, stout, and, like their legs, deeply and densely feathered. The Clumber spaniel is a stouter, shorter-legged, rougher-coated dog, with a broad nose. ‘In him,” con- tinues Stonehenge, “ there is the full development of brain and of the cavities of the nose, which gives the power of smelling with the greatest nicety, and also that of dis- criminating scents; thus the true Clumber spaniel will distinguish readily the foot-scent of the pheasant from the cock, and will throw his tongue differently ; and they may readily be kept to either, or allowed to hunt both, accord- ing to the fancy of their masters. In size these dogs are about thirty-five or forty pounds—generally of a liver color, with very large heads, long ears, and broad noses; bodies low, long and strong, covered with long hair, not very curly but with a strong wave, legs very straight and strong, with good feet. They also have great powers of endurance, but are not fast, and are on that account well suited to covert-shooting. Their note is deep and musical, and they are under very good command, when well broken. THE COCKING SPANIEL. 207 Numberless brecds, somewhat resembling the Clumber, are “met with throughout England, and of all colors and almost all forms, commonly called old English spaniels. Most of them have nearly the same kind of developments, though few come up to him in all the qualities here enu- merated; there is generally too fast a style of hunting, or too little courage, or a want of steadiness, or some defi- ciency or other.” In another part of the same volume, this able and dis. criminating writer says of this dog—“ The Clumber span- iel is the best I have ever seen, being hardy and capable of braving wet with impunity. His nose is also wonder- fully good, which its full development in point of size would lead one to expect. They are bred so much for hunting cock that they own the scent very readily, and seem to delight and revel in it, giving generally a very joyous note on touching upon their trail. The true Clumber may be easily kept to feather, and though they will readily hunt fur when nothing else is to be had, they do not prefer it, as most other dogs do.” The Clumber breed is that, which I have mentioned above, as owned in great purity by Captain Peel, and is the dog which I would especially recommend to all sportsmen, young or old, for July cock-shooting. I am well satisfied that over two or three of these un- wearied and dauntless dogs, which, where water is plenty, would work willingly from dawn till sunset of a July day, a good shot could double his bag with one half the walking and labor he would be obliged to exert over setters or pointers 208 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. It is true, that they require constant attention, firm- ness, steadiness and temper; but so do all dogs. These, I think, not more than most others, excepting always the steady pointer, certainly less than the headstrong and fierce Irish setter. Moreover, the attention of the sportsman is at all events required to fewer points. To hunt close and mute, and to drop to shot is all that he has to ask, and, if asked becomingly, he will not be disappointed. To conclude, no one, I believe, who has ever shot cock ina wet July brake of alders, or what is worse, in the ravine of a Maryland éranch, over Clumber spaniels, will ever voluntarily return to the setter or the pointer, how- ever pre-eminently superior at their own work, and over their own line of country. + ——— S®Rece. sc) = THE WATER-SPANIEL. Tus beautiful, sagacious, and useful species, like the varieties last described, is not so general in this country, as he deserves to be, the rather that many districts inland, to the westward and southward more especially, are singu- larly adapted to his use. A portion of his blood is not unfrequently to be found in imperfectly bred setters, and although it unques- tionably detracts from the value of the animal as a pure- 210 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. bred species, it is the least objectionable of all the crosses. It does not produce obstinacy and inferior saga- city, as is, I think, usually the case with the pointer cross; nor headstrong wildness, evincing itself in an uncontrol- lable desire to chase fur, which is the consequence of a foxhound admixture. It generally shows itself in an in- creased degree of curliness in the hair, particularly about the poll and ears, the latter being also larger, longer, and far more fleecily covered in the pure setter. The quali- ties which this variety seems to give, are great readiness and facility in retrieving, and superior fondness for the water. Neither of which points are detrimental, but rather the reverse, to the setter. The very best setter I ever owned, whose pedigree I do not know, showed strong indications of a remote water-spaniel cross in his hair and color, though in form and habits he was a perfect setter. I never saw so good a retriever, nor a steadier or stancher dog, though I have seen hundreds fleeter. One thing is certain; water-spaniel blood does not produce riot, since the dog is eminently docile. I approve of no cross-breeding in dogs of established races; yet if I had a family of fine setters, which in the course of years had become too nearly connected from want of intermixture of some other pure but distinct set- ter blood, and none such were attainable, I would not hesitate to use one cross of water-spaniel, and should not doubt of improving the stock in the second generation from the admixture. “Of this breed,” says Mr. Youatt, “there are two varieties, a larger and a smaller, both useful according to THE WATER SPANIEL. 211 the degree of range or the work required; the smaller, however, being ordinarily preferable.”—In this point I do not agree with Mr. Youatt. The larger dog is, to my taste, the purer bred, the lesser being often interbred with the land-spaniel, and for American shooting in par- ticular, far superior. “ Whatever be his general sizc, strength and compactness of form are requisite. His head is long, his face smooth, and his limbs, more devel- oped than those of the springer, should be muscular, his carcass round, and his hair long and closely curled.” In the best and purest breeds, while the face itself is perfectly smooth, the poll, the ears, and the sides of the neck are clothed so densely with long, soft, silky, curled hair, that the countenance appears to be set in an Eliza- bethan ruff, and the ears are absolutely ringletted. The only true colors of this dog are liver or liver and white. Any others indicate mixtures of foreign blood. “Good breaking,” Mr. Youatt continues, “is more necessary here than even with the land-:paniel, and for- tunately it 1s more easily accomplished; for the water- spaniel, although a stouter, is a more docile animal than the land one. “ Docility and affection are stamped on his counte- nance, and he rivals every other breed in his attachment to his master. His work is double; first, to find when ordered to do so, and to back behind the sportsman when the game will be more advantageously trodden up. In both he must be taught to be perfectly obedient to the voice,” or dog call, ‘ that he may be kept within range, and may not unnecessarily disturb the birds. A more impor- 212 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. tant part of his duty, however, is to find and bring the game that has dropped. To teach him to find is easy enough, for a young water-spauiel will as readily take to the water, as a pointer puppy will stop; but to bring his game without tearing it, is a more