APPENDIX, 179 



gressiou, we get to the ounce bullet itself, which fits the piece : and 

 which, by the by, at an elevation, would not be impelled further if 

 projected from a twenty-four pound cannon. 



The theory of the air's regular resistance to the onward progress 

 of the bullet, must also be applied to the irregular action of the 

 wind across the line of its flight ; which action also increases in the 

 ratio of the decrease of the weight of the bullet. At the_ distance 

 of 315 yards I have found a strong cross wind to cause a rifle bullet 

 of nineteen to the r>ound to diverge from three to four feet. On 

 the other hand, I have used a rifle carrying a bullet of ten_ to the 

 pound, which, mth the same wind, did not, at the same distance, 

 diverge more than about one foot. In constructing a butt for rifle 

 practice, regard should, therefore, be had to the more usual direc- 

 tion of the vraid ; and, as far as the locality will allow, the butt 

 should be placed so as to have the wind more frequently m the Ime 

 of the range, either way, than across it. 



'For general, and especially for mihtary purposes, such large nties 

 as the last mentioned would, coupled with the ammumtion, be 

 found too heavy. The rifles commonly used m the United States 

 carry, I am tol^ a bullet of thii-ty-two to the pound. The adoption 

 of so small a calibre, I take to have been occasioned by the use of 

 the rifle being, in that country, origmally and generally conimed to 

 the interior of thick forests, wherein it seldom happens that an ob- 

 ject is to be fired at beyond the distance of one hundred yards ; 

 and where, moreover, the wind is much less felt than in an open 



Under the above circumstances, the half-ounce rifles are adequate 

 to their purnose; but in a more open, and especially m a moun- 

 tainous country, the calibre of rifles should be considerably larger. 

 In a hilly country, you are often in the actual presence ot the 

 enemy, and capable of greatly annojdng him, at distances at which, 

 on a plain, the view is iminterrupted and confined by the least con- 

 siderable of surrounding objects. In a hilly country, occasions are 

 perpetually offering, wherein long rifle ranges would cause consider- 

 able mischief to your opponents. Such long ranges can never be 

 obtained, nor depended on, with the half-ounce rifles ot the Ameri- 

 cans and Tyrolese. „ _ , p , .. • j. 



If the foregoing observations are founded on tact, it is easy to 

 decide what sort of rifle should be applied to a particular purpose. 

 With respect to general purposes, I am mchned to fix on the 

 calibre of one ounce, or sixteen bullets to the pound. Ihe J^.n|- 

 lish Government rifles are of nineteen or twenty to the pound; 

 to which caUbre there is little objection, especially as it is thf same 

 as that of the cavaky carbines and pistols. However, i could ad- 

 vance several reasons— I do not call them very important ones— 

 for preferring the Erench regulation ; according to which all the 

 fire-arms of all the different coiTps, both of cavaby and infantry, are 

 of one and the same cahbre, of sixteen bullets to the pound. 



With respect to the rifle, at least, I would most strenuously 



