EXTRAORDINARY SHOOTING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 255, 4 November 1878, Page 5

EXTRAORDINARY SHOOTING.

Tha London Week's News says : — - Some lime sinca wa yave a notice of sorna extraordinary shooting by the well-known Captain Bogardus, certainly one of the tnoat wonderful shots in tho worlJ. There is, however, in the States v certain Dr. Carver, who almits the existence of no equal in (he Blioot'iDg of moving otjeels with i\\a rill? or Bljut»ua. To such a pitch of perfection, iudeeJ, ha 3he brought this

acquirement, that, forsaking the walk iv life suggested by his prefix, he has been giving a series of public performances in markmanship, after the manner of his military fellow-eountryraan now in this country. To begin with, and by way of getting his hand in, he takes 100 light balls filled with feathers, out of which when thrown to a height of 25 feet, he broke ninety-seven at his last public performance. Every now and then he would take shots whilst a ball was in the air — filing his ride twicß at random, and scattering the feathers with the third shoS- — to show how rapidly, he could load and fire. Whole bricks the doctor did what he pleased wilh, first smashing them into fragments, and then picking on the larger pieces with a second shot ere they fell to the ground. A fragment of brick that was hurled at him by hie factotum, " Texas Jack," ha also succeeded in hitting twice aa it travelled towards him; and a piece of wood three feet long and four inches wide having been tosseJ up, tha doctor hit it in the middle lour times, tha balls beincr in a horizontal line, until the last shot severed it ia twain. Then commenced his equally marvellous feats with coins. A gentleman baviag liberally provided a silver dollar, the doctor sent it spinning away in a clamp of wood some quarter of a mile away. Quarterilollar?, nickels, and three-cent pieces were in turn sent whizzing through the air until the providers of ibe cash bad (-nough of this somewhat expensive exposition of the marksman' d skill. To ah-jw what he could do with glass balls, ho quietly smashed 104 in 5 minutes 3£ £6Co3c's, though this is by no means up to his best previous record. He was successful, too, ia breaking these balis when thrown as hard as it was possible to throw them by the hand, a much more difficult feat than smashing them a 9 they rise from a trap. A piece of lead-pencil, four inches long, was cut in two io mid-air at the third triil, and a butterfly, which probably flitted near the " doctor," was promptly brought down by a big shst. After reading all this we can quite believe that Doctor Carver has long takea a delight in the rifle, and can understand, too, that >« "practice" and "patients" he carts for ara not tho3e generally affected by the soqb of iEjculapiua.