ROUND THE CAMP FIRE 323 



bullets. As was natural, however, these rifles were soon 

 tried beyond their powers and out of their own particular 

 sphere. In some cases they exceeded their admirers' most 

 sanguine hopes ; in a good many others they led to very 

 dire accidents on account of their general lack of " knock- 

 ing-down " power. 



So there grew a demand for weapons possessing similar 

 advantages but of larger bore and greater power. 



The outcome of this was the medium-bore cordite rifle, 

 which has now become so popular. 



It is worthy of note that the evolution of this type of 

 sporting rifle is due to the skill and enterprise of a firm of 

 London rifle-makers then supposed to occupy a somewhat 

 second-rate position ; the " leading " firms meanwhile appar- 

 ently regarding its efforts with complacent humour. Their 

 attitude however was altered when it was seen that such 

 weapons had come to stay, and possessed qualities that 

 rendered existing sporting rifles obsolete. So soon there- 

 fore as was compatible with an effort to keep up the 

 prestige of the older weapons awhile, in order to avoid a 

 slump in their value, the " leading " firms began to follow 

 their pioneer's lead, and to turn out new rifles, differing by 

 a few hundredths of an inch in the diameter of the bore 

 for the sake of an appearance of " originality," or in order 

 to make a speciality of their own cartridges ! 



So rapidly did some manufacturers take up and turn out 

 the new cordite rifles that they failed to pay proper atten- 

 tion to their peculiarities ; and this resulted in some cases 

 of failure and even of disaster to the breech or barrel all 

 of which reacted unfavourably on sportsmen, especially 

 those of conservative ideas, who looked askance at such 

 dangerous arms. 



In addition, there occurred a few cases of sportsmen 

 coming to grief, owing to the alleged failure of the new 

 weapons to " stop " dangerous game. 



Although this was to a certain extent due to the care- 



