314 CHOKE-BORES. 



second shot we will go nearer — to within, say, 12 yards. 

 The 40 yard pattern will present a similar appearance 

 to the preceding ; in that made at 12 yards the shot 

 will be found divided as when in the shell, the line of 

 division being wonderfully exact. 



Can we explain any of the results of these special ex- 

 periments by the " increased cohesion of the pellets" 

 theory ? I answer no ! most decidedly. Or will the 

 rather more indefinite hypothesis that " the constric- 

 tion at the muzzle forces the outside pellets to the 

 centre" any better account for these last two targets ? 

 (And here, please note, my readers, the difference be- 

 tween the pellets being forced inward by the constric- 

 tion and its producing in them a motion which causes 

 another totally different force to so act upon them.) 

 But we will investigate a little further. 



In neither of these last two experiments are the 

 cardboard partitions destroyed ; you may find them 

 again almost uninjured by proper search : and this fact 

 proves to us the fallacy of that last-mentioned " con- 

 striction /o?rm^" theory. The pellets on the 40 yard 

 target could not have been so mixed, or the cardboard 

 -would have been destroyed ; and the 12 yard pattern 

 further proves this, for both cartridges were loaded 

 similarly. It is evident then, from these experiments, 

 that some force tending to mix these pellets, the outer 



