the niceties of practice, and to enter into it with a keen zest, he will need a very different style of gun.  A calibre large enough for a round ball of fifty to the pound, or an elongated shot of about half an ounce, is sufficient for six hundred yards; and a gun of that calibre, with a thirty-inch barrel, and a weight of about ten pounds, is better suited to the general wants of purchasers than any other size.  In this part of the country it is by no means easy to find a place where shooting can be safely practised even at so long a range as five hundred yards,—­which is sixty yards more than a quarter of a mile.  It is always necessary to have an attendant at the target to point out the shots, and even then the shooter needs a telescope to distinguish them.  For ordinary purposes, therefore, the calibre I have indicated is all-sufficient; but if a gun is wanted for shooting up to one thousand yards, the shot should be a full ounce weight.  These are points which each man must determine for himself, and, having done so, let him go to any gun-maker of established reputation, and, before giving his order, let him study and compare the different forms of stocks, till he finds what is required for his peculiar physical conformation,—­and giving directions accordingly, he will probably secure a weapon whose merits he will not fully appreciate till he has attained a degree of skill which is the result only of long-continued practice.

But never buy a gun, and least of all a rifle, without trying it; and do not be satisfied with a trial in a shop or shooting gallery, but take it into the field; and if you distrust yourself, get some one in whom you have confidence to try it for you.  Choose a perfectly calm day.  Have a rest prepared on which not only the gun may be laid, but a support may also be had for the elbows, the shooter being seated.  By this means, and with the aid of globe- and peek-sights, (which should always be used in trying a gun,) it may as certainly be held in the same position at every shot as if it were clamped in a machine.  For your target take a sheet of cartridge-paper and draw on it a circle of a foot, and, inside of that, another of four inches in diameter.  Paint the space between the rings black, and you will then have a black ring four inches wide surrounding a white four-inch bull’s-eye, against which your globe-sight will be much more distinctly seen than if it were black.  Place the target so that when shooting you may have the sun on your back.  On a very bright day, brown paper is better for a target than white.  Begin shooting at one hundred yards and fire ten shots, with an exact aim at the bull’s-eye, wiping out the gun after each shot.  Do not look to see where you hit, till you have fired your string of ten shots; for, if you do, you will be tempted to alter your aim and make allowance for the variation, whereas your object now is not to hit the bull’s-eye, but to prove the shooting of the gun; and if you find, when you get through, that