334 Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. [July, 
and naval artillerists through the medium more especially 
of the periodical publications of the Royal Artillery Insti- 
tution at Woolwich. 
On the contrary, however well up (thanks to the daily 
press) in the size, weight, and power of contemporary 
cannon, and in the velocity and penetration of elongated 
projectiles, &c., the public are too apt to regard with con- 
tempt what they consider the puny prototypes of our present 
magnificent guns; and perhaps would be surprised to learn 
that the cannon and missiles, both European and Oriental, 
whilst the art of their construction was yet rude and still 
in its infancy, attained a size and weight equal to, if not 
exceeding, our largest and latest pieces and projectiles. 
The Orientals were farin advance of the Europeans in their 
acquaintance with metallurgy, and there is good authority 
for supposing that bronze was known to them at a remote 
age, and, according to Fergusson, ‘‘the Indians were as 
familiar with the use of iron in the fourth century B.c., as 
the Greeks themselves were, and for anything we know to 
the contrary, may have understood the art of extracting it 
from the ore and using it for arms and cutting tools before 
these arts were practised in Europe” (‘‘ Rude Stone 
Monuments,” p. 480). Indeed, it is not impossible that 
bullets were used in Asia when our ancestors were not 
beyend flint arrow-heads; at all events it seems certain that 
gunpowder was used in India and China before the Christian 
era. Weare apt to take a certain pride in our forgings 
when we read of iron bars 270 feet* in length being coiled 
on a mandril to form the coil of a gun in the nineteenth 
century A.D.; but Mr. Fergusson rather takes the conceit 
out of us when he informs us of the existence of an iron 
pillar in the courtyard of a mosque near Delhi, consisting 
of a solid shaft of wrought-iron standing 22 feet 6 inches 
out of the ground, and 26 feet deep in the ground, that is 
nearly 50 feet in total length, and 5 feet 6 inches in 
circumference. Mr. Fergusson adds that such a single 
III. “ Ancient Cannon in Europe.” By Lieut. H. Brackenbury, R.A.— 
“ Proc. Roy. Art. Institution, Woolwich,” vol. iv., No. 10, 1865, et. seq. 
IV. “An Account of the Great Cannon of Muhammad II., recently 
presented to Her Majesty by the Sultan, with notices of other great Oriental 
Cannon.” By Brigadier-General Lrerroy, R.A., F.R.S.—‘‘ Proc. Roy. Art. 
Institution,” vol vi., No. 6, 1868. 
V. “ Notice of a Stone Cannon Ball Dredged up in Falmouth Harbour, and 
of the use of Stone Shot.” By Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.— 
““Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Royal Institution of Cornwall.” 
Truro, 1845. 
* The bar of iron to form coil for new 36-ton gun will be 1200 feet in length. 
