POWDER AND SHOT. 21 



of game we are in pursuit of, and a score of other matters ; ail of 

 wluch are calculated to modify the judgment, and to cause it to 

 Xjreponderate either to the one side or the other. Mr. Greener 

 maintains that, if we obtain powder of fine grain, and powder com- 

 posed of the same ingredients, larger grained, the latter will be found 

 to be stronger than the former. He tells us, he has made many 

 experiments both by rifle and musket, and the coarser grained always 

 predominated over the smaller kinds. These results have been de- 

 nied by other respectable sporting authorities. _ Hawker says, the 

 best powder for copper-cap guns is the fine cylinder of Curtis and 

 Hervey, the larg;e grained powder being Hable to miss fire. But 

 the same authority qualifies the decision by afterwards stating, " I 

 have invariably observed that small grained powder fails to answer 

 in large guns ; particularly on salt water, and in damp weather. It 

 always shoots weak beyond fifty or sixty yards, and is very liable 

 to hang fire. If a punt-gun is loaded with fine powder, and brought 

 in at night, the chances are that it would hang fire in the morning. 

 But with coarse cannon powder, I have known a gun that has been 

 loaded for a fortnight go off as well as possible, by merely being 

 probed, and fresh primed." 



How far the glazing of powder is advantageous, is likewise a dis- 

 putable question. Many sportsmen affirm, that they failed to detect 

 any difference between the glazed and the unglazed articles. We 

 think ourselves, that the question may be safely resolved into one 

 of fancy and taste. It vdlL be found to rest on no other basis. 



On the ratio of force with which different kinds of powder act on 

 resisting bodies, much curious and valuable information has 

 been communicated to the sporting world of late years. The sub- 

 stance of such information we shall attempt to condense into as 

 brief a space as is compatible mth clearness. 



A gun loaded with ball does not kick so severely as one loaded 

 with shot, and among the different sorts of shot, that which is the 

 smallest causes the greatest recoil agamst the shoulder. A gun 

 loaded with a quantity of sand, equal in weiglit to a charge of 

 snipe-shot, is said to kick still more. If, in loading, a space be left 

 between the M^adding and the charge, the gun either recoils vio- 

 lently or bursts. If the muzzle of a gun has accidentally been 

 stuck into the ground, so as to be stopped up with clay, or even 

 with snow, or if it be fired with its muzzle plunged into water, it 

 will in all probability burst. The cause of these apparently con- 

 tradictory results is, that every force requires time to produce its 

 effect ; and if the time requisite for the elastic vapour within to 

 force out the sides of the barrel, is less than that in which the 

 condensation of the air near the wadding is conveyed in sufficient 

 force to drive the impediment from the muzzle, then the barrel must 

 burst. It occasionally happens that these two forces are so equally 

 balanced that the baiTcl only swells, the obstacle giving way 

 before the piece actually biirsts. This explanation will appear 

 more obvious if we trace, step by step, the circumstances which 



