Gun-flint Manufactory at Brandon. 1 1 9 



weapon in like quantities they would in time be able to do so to 

 perfection. As it is, their present occupation is by no means a 

 simple one, and it takes a long time and much practice to attain 

 to any proficiency in the art of making gun-flmts. Quartenng 

 the big flints and striking off the long flakes is a very skiltul 

 operation, and I should say absolutely impossible to perform by 

 an amateur. As for my own experience, I was able to make a 

 respectable scraper and spear-head, but as for flaking and knap- 

 pin" gun-flints, I broke every one I tried. . 



There is of course a great deal of waste, not only chippings, 

 but large pieces too, for it often happens that upon quartering a 

 bier flint it turns out too full of flaws and imperfections to be 

 made into gun-flints, so it is put aside with any other pieces of 

 a suitable size, and these are trimmed into blocks about six 

 inches, by three inches, by four inches, and are called " bmlders. 

 These are sold for facing houses, for ornamental work in building, 

 and even for making walls. Many of the houses and garden- 

 walls in Brandon are built of splendid dressed flints, and, though 

 very old, seem as good and as somid as ever. The chippmgs on 

 the other hand, are almost useless, except for road-makmg ; but 

 the locality is well supplied with this material, and, as freight 

 and cartage is an item of consideration, it does not pay to send 

 it elsewhere for road-making, or even for pottery manufacture, m 

 which silica is greatly used. 



We now come to the final use of gun-flints. It is no doubt a 

 matter of astonishment to many that such articles are made at 

 all in these days of percussion caps, breechloaders, pmfires, 

 central-fires, &c., yet so it is, and for these reasons. Our old 

 flint-lock rifles and guns are not destroyed by any means ; they 

 are or were, sold to merchants for purposes of barter with 

 natives, chiefly of equatorial Africa. As, therefore, these guns 

 still exist, and as they require gun-flints, flmt being scarce or even 

 unknown in Central Africa, it follows that a demand still exists 

 in these regions for the article of commerce in question. Zanzibar 

 and other points communicating with the interior are the chief 

 points of consignment, and, as Mr. Snare was good enough to 

 supply me with some of his busmess statistics, I am able to quote 

 the annual output of gun-flints fi-om one firm in six years :-- 

 1880 4 500,000; 1881, 2,832,500; 1882, 3,115,000; 1883, 

 4 721 BOO ; 1884, 4,793,150; 1885, 3,203,250. After the flints 

 are made they are counted off into store casks, which are usually 

 flour-barrels, and I saw thus stored several hundred thousands in 

 one warehouse. For export they are packed into kegs or well-made 

 small barrels, each holding as near as possible 29,800 gun-flints. 

 In this condition they go out to the African ports for barter with 

 the natives, to make fire for the old flint-lock muskets which did 

 duty in this country before the days of the Enfield, the Snider, 

 and the Martini-Henry. 



