the diminution of weight is of course of immense advantage.  Messrs. Holland and Holland inform me that they have made many experiments with the 8-bore Paradox against the 8-bore rifle, and in every case have obtained higher velocity and greater penetration with the Paradox.  The new 10-bore is almost a 9, and practically is big enough for any game.  It shoots 8 drams of powder, and a fairly long conical bullet, and its weight is about 12-1/2 lbs.  Messrs. Holland and Holland have invented a new steel bullet for these guns, and with this the penetration is very great.  The 20 and 16-bore Paradox guns weigh from 6-1/2 lbs. to 7 lbs., and are largely used on the Continent for shooting wild boar, bears, and other large game.  Nearly all these guns are made with hammers, because as a rule sportsmen travelling in wild countries prefer to have the old-fashioned hammer guns, which are so universally understood, instead of a hammerless gun, which cannot be so easily repaired should it break down in any part.  Messrs. Holland and Holland inform me that for the ordinary 12-bore Paradox weighing 7 lbs. the usual charge of 3 drams is all that is necessary for soft-skinned animals such as tigers, leopards, and bears, but they also make a heavier 12-bore, weighing from 8 lbs. to 8-1/2 lbs., and shooting 4 or 4-1/2 drams of powder, but generally recommend the usual 7 lbs.  Paradox, and, from my experience of the latter with tigers, I do not think one could desire a better gun for all jungle shooting, though I need hardly add that for antelope shooting on the plains a long range rifle is desirable.

FOOTNOTES: 

[21] “Jungle Life in India, or the Journeys and Journals of an Indian Geologist,” by V. Ball, M.A.  London, Thos.  De La Rue and Co., 1880.

[22] “My Indian Journal,” by Colonel Walter Campbell.  Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas, 1864.

[23] In Jerdon’s “Mammals of India” it is stated that in Nepaul the wild dogs, whose urine is said to be peculiarly acrid, sprinkle it over bushes through which an animal will probably move with the view of blinding their victim.  Jerdon certainly disbelieves the native story of their capturing their prey through the acridity of their urine.  It seems to me not improbable that the wild dogs may have become aware of the offensive character of their urine, and in passing near a tiger might discharge some of it with the view of annoying the tiger and driving him away, and also perhaps as a mark of contempt, and that this probably was the origin of the widely spread story I have alluded to in the text.

CHAPTER VI.

THE INDIAN BISON.