MISCELLANEOUS HINTS. 407 



composing the English powder, put up in small tin canisters or 

 wrapped in cartridge-paper for the use of sportsmen, is as follows : — 

 nitre seventj-five parts, charcoal fifteen, sulphur ten. 



Dupont's powder is more generally used by sportsmen through- 

 out our country than any other; it is more powerful than the 

 English powder, being compounded of — nitre seventy-seven parts, 

 charcoal thirteen, sulphur ten. 



This powder is put up in small tin canisters of a pound each, 

 and in this way is entirely protected from the moisture that is so 

 hurtful to it. Of its quality we need say nothing, as its long cele- 

 brity is a suflScient guarantee of its worth. 



When packed as above, expressly for the use of sportsmen, 

 Dupont's powder costs nearly double as much as it does when pur- 

 chased in small six-pound kegs; but the universal satisfaction it 

 affords, and the convenience and safety of carriage, give it a 

 decided preference in the eyes of most sportsmen, notwithstand- 

 ing the additional price asked for it. 



VARIETIES OF GUNPOWDER. 



The principal and most appreciable difference in the manufacture 

 of gunpowder is its division into coarse and fine-grained, glazed 

 and unglazed. 



The first variety — the coarse-grained powder — is used princi- 

 pally for all species of large fire-arms, and undoubtedly is the most 

 powerful of the two kinds ; at all events, we have arrived at this 

 conclusion from experiments tried while duck-shooting, and we are 

 supported in our observations by many respectable authorities; 

 that is, we wish to be understood that an ounce of coarse-grained 

 powder is more powerful than an ounce of fine-grained powder, 

 both of the same manufacture and of equal proportions. The 

 superior strength or projectile force of the coarse-grained has been 

 accounted for on principles which, to our mind, are both reason- 

 able and convincing, and may be explained by the perusal of the 

 following extract taken from Greener's work on this subject: — "I 

 have ahvays thought and am quite convinced that powder is made 



