PROPER CHARGES. IOI 



obtainable. Game was not nearly as wild then as it 

 is now, consequently by far the greater number of 

 shots were made at comparatively speaking short 

 range, so the result of employing bad powder was 

 not felt ; in fact, those pioneers of South African 

 colonisation were entirely ignorant of a better ma- 

 terial than was supplied by their traders. The roer 

 now has entirely disappeared, a vast number of 

 them having been burst by using the superior 

 powders now common. The Boer in former days 

 knew nothing of measuring a charge ; as much as 

 would lay in his hand was a load, and so he treated 

 the manufactures of Curtis and Harvey and Messrs. 

 Pigou and Wilks, when first they were obtainable ; 

 the consequences are easy to be surmised. I think an 

 8-bore double barrel should weigh — for this work — 

 from fifteen to sixteen pounds, a io-bore double about 

 twelve, the load for the former is nearly twelvedrachms 

 of powder, for the latter from seven to eight, although 

 I have been assured by the gunmaker who provided 

 Commander Baker with his battery and by his near 

 relative the late and much-regretted General Valen- 

 tine Baker, that his cousin always shot elephants 

 with eleven drachms of powder out of a gun of the 

 last-mentioned calibre. My own experience is that 

 from seven to eight drachms is a sufficiency, therefore 

 I recommend it. For me, that quantity has satis- 

 factorily performed its work ; why then waste thirty 

 per cent, of a commodity that is extremely valuable 



