wadding which covers the powder should be thick and air-tight; while that which covers the shot should be thin, and with vent. This and a few trifling improvements in wadding, I was anxious to see put in practice; as I have had my day, and therefore wished to serve others, if I could. I then resolved to explain this to some new wadding-merchant; and as the gunmakers have enough to do, if they mind their muns, I thought no one more proper to select than Mr. Joyce, as the quality of his waddings has proved most admirable; and he is a practical chemist, who looks a little to the esprit de corps, as well as to the

. s. d. This wadding is now out, and every day increasing in circulation over the kingdom, which is the best possible proof of its efficacy. Mr. Joyce, I see, has made the shot-wadding with a hole in the centre; though my wish was to have it triangularly dented round the edge.

Some of the wadding-merchants object to the trouble of serving two sorts: when this is the case, let me recommend young sportsmen to wad their shot with thin pasteboard, cut by a dented punch. For the powder, however, they should use one kind or other of these anointed waddings; or their guns will soon get "leaded," and become as dry as the very subject I have been writing on.

Since the last edition, our uncle, Bishop, has started Westley Richards's wadding; and it proves so good, that half the gunmakers in town buy it, and call it their own. Nothing can be better.

[1844. There are now also metallic waddings. But they never can keep the powder air-tight like an

K

elastic substance, nor can they assist in cleaning the gun like Wilkinson's felt, Richards's prepared wadding, or even common oakum; and I may add, that their injuring the inside of a soft twisted barrel does not appear to me an impossibility.]

LOADING.

THE following directions were originally written for, and therefore relate only to, flint-guns. But in percussion-guns the charge must be reduced about one-sixth part.

Much as may be said on this important head, I shall attempt to explain it by one simple example: for instance, to load a single gun of six, or double gun of seven, eight, or nine pounds' weight, take a steel charger which holds precisely an ounce and a half of shot; fill it brim full of powder, from which first prime, and then put the remainder into the barrel to this add the same measure bumper full of shot, and then regulate the tops of your flasks and belts accordingly.

Some little difference of charge will, of course, be required between a twenty-two and a fourteen gauge; and in this we may be guided by the shoulder, observing, at the same time, the proportion of each here recommended: but, unless the gun is very heavy, a gauge of fourteen will recoil more than one of twentytwo; so that, after all, the above charge might do equally well for both.

For those who have scales at hand, another way will be, to ascertain this by weight: for instance, to the guns above mentioned put one drachm and a half

of powder, exclusive of the priming, to an ounce and a half of shot. The proportion for a twelve pounds gun to be doubled; eighteen pounds trebled; twentyfour pounds quadrupled, &c.; with one trifling deviation; viz. the larger the gun the less should be the proportion of shot, as the larger and longer the caliber the more powder may be damaged in going down it. Much more may be fired, but not always with ease to the shoulder.

The same proportion will hold good from a lady's gun to the firearms of a punt shooter; though it may, in a trifling degree, be altered, as barrels shoot thin or close.

Although I have mentioned being guided by weight as one way of regulating a charge, yet this is not the most correct means to be used with regard to the powder, for the following reason, which is not generally known:-As sportsmen charge by measure, the gunpowder-makers endeavour to include, in the space to be filled, as much weight as possible; and in so doing, include as much projectile force as the composition is capable of: it is, therefore, evidently better to be guided in the fine powder by measure. All the powder made for the Queen's service is exposed to the air of the magazine, with the door open all day, for three weeks, before it undergoes a second proof, to ascertain whether it will imbibe moisture, and increase in weight, which if it does beyond a certain small allowance, it is rejected.

Gunmakers will obstinately dispute this method of loading; and for why? Because they try their guns in confined places, use larger shot than No. 7., and look chiefly to the closeness of their shooting. But

we should remember, that if a gun is overloaded with shot, a great part of it, at any distance, drops short of the object; and the remainder has not so much strength left, as if that only had received the full force of the powder. Try this on the water.-I do not, however, say, but, at even a little distance, some shot must strike (not fall) short, if a bird is swimming. These are the grains which, in spreading, would take the under part of any thing placed perpendicular. It should also be observed, that with a small charge of shot you are not so liable to fire behind an object crossing, or under a bird which is rising, by reason that the less the weight of shot is in proportion to the charge of powder, the shorter time it requires to travel through the air.