THE LAST OF THE PENNSYLVANIA WAYSIDE GUNSMITHS BUSLER BROTHERS, CLINTON COUNTY, PA. (Frontispiece) THE LAST OF THE PENNSYLVANIA WAYSIDE GUNSMITHS BUSLER BROTHERS, CLINTON COUNTY, PA. (Frontispiece) "Aerataeque Micant Peltae, Micat Aereus Ensis." — Virgil , Aen. VIII, 743 DEDICATED TO THE PENNSYLVANIA FOLK-LORE SOCIETY, BY THE COMPILER...

For years this writer's aim was to visualize the armed Pennsylvanian of earlier days; how he went forth to fight his Indian foe, to slay the bison, moose, elk and smaller game, and on his expeditions to the fields of love: where his firearms and edged weapons originated. To create the living man his arms must be secured, and gradually the present collection was assembled. And he lived again, dark, grim, bearded, the spirit of lofty pines and hemlocks among which he spent his days, always plottin

1. EXTREMELY HEAVY SHARPSHOOTER'S OR TARGET RIFLE. L. 52-1/2" Full length stock with small cheek-piece and flattened at muzzle for shooting from a rest. Weight, about 40 lbs. .50 Cal. Double set triggers. Rare. Flintlock. Made by Pennebacker, Berks County. 2. PERCUSSION TARGET RIFLE. L. 47-3/4" Octagon barrel, half stock, small brass patch-box, brass and German silver mountings. Peep-and-globe sights, rear sight missing. Fitted with false muzzle for loading. Lock marked "Warranted". About .38 ca

Seth Iredell Nelson and his son, Seth Nelson, Jr., have long been regarded as two of the most renowned and resourceful big game hunters and armorers of Central Pennsylvania. At their home and hunting lodge on the Sinnemahoning at the foot of Altar Rock, famed in Indian lore, they maintained a gunshop and forge, making or repairing many of their own guns, knives, ammunition, etc., as well as their axes, saws, cant-hooks, farming implements and the like. Many of their choicest specimens are now in

1. AFRICAN TRADERS' FLINTLOCK GUN. L. 66-1/2" Roughly and cheaply made. Black-painted poplar stock, brass mountings. Belgian proof-marks. Guns of this sort were made at a cost of about a dollar and often brought as much as five hundred dollars worth of ivory. 2. PERCUSSION KENTUCKY RIFLE. L. 58" Curley maple stock, highly polished and finished in a dark, mahogany-like red. Big and extremely ornate brass patch-box, brass plate on under side of stock, running from trigger-guard to lower ramrod-thi