324 Mr. Mallet on the Physical Conditions 



the longitudinal bars, — probably the effects of the more rapidly igniting powder then 

 becoming known. The gun actually discharged balls of Galloway granite against Threave 

 Castle. The weight of a granite ball of 19 J inches diameter is about 330 lbs. When tlie 

 extreme thinness of the gun towards the muzzle — indeed its general thinness — is consi- 

 dered, we cannot avoid being impressed with the real skill shown in the construction of 

 these built-up guns, in which, despite the difficulties which the infant state of metal- 

 lurgic art interposed, and unaided by science, with nothing but mother wit and patient 

 " trial and error" to guide them, these ancient craftsmen arrived at a construction which 

 tlie science of to-day affirms within one stage of being theoretically perfect, and succeeded 

 practically in producing weapons which in magnitude are only now about to be surpassed. 

 Nor, when we call to mind the state of fortification from the thirteenth to the beginning 

 of the sixteenth centuries, are we less struck with the extreme suitability of these bombards 

 to the work tliey were called on to perform. The strongholds were all of masonry: earth- 

 works and bastions were not developed before the fifteenth century. Large and heavy 

 shot, thrown with moderate velocity, was precisely that which in the then state of the 

 arts, and of warfare, gave the most efficient breaching power. The latest and most formi- 

 dable fortifications in Europe have returned to masonry in casemates to avast extent; our 

 floating batteries of attack are become shot-proof: we shall yet return to the bombard, 

 though improved and empowered. 



The third and last bombard which I purpose noticing, is that which was dug out ol 

 the bed of the Bhagretti river a few years since, by Mr. H. Torrens, Political Agent at the 

 Court of the Nabob Nazim of Bengal, and which now stands opposite the palace at Moor- 

 shedabad. 



This remarkable gun was extremely well figured in the " Illustrated London News" of 

 October 18, 1851, p. 501:— 



It is identical in principle of construction with the Gantois gun, with the exception of 

 the chamber-piece being separable from the chase, to which it is capable of being confined 

 by lashings, through rings provided on it and on the chase. 



The chase part is 12 feet 6 inches in length; the caliber 18^ inches; the chamber- 

 piece is 4 feet 3 inches long. Nothing is known as to the origin or history of the gun, 

 though a vague local popular notion exists of its having been made to resist the Mahrattas, 

 who at former periods used to descend upon Moorshedabad ; but as the Mahratta power only 

 began to rise in the middle of the seventeenth century, on the decline of the Mogul 

 dynasties, when cannon of a totally different and more modern sort were in common use 

 in India, this is out of question. 



This most remarkable gun, identical in principle and in mode of construction with the 

 ancient bombards of Europe, proves its own Oriental origin and construction, by the unmis- 

 takable style of ornamentation upon its exterior. Either it was made in India; or, if made 



