212 MORRIS TUBES. 



point among military men, by the use of the Morris 

 Tube, * with miniature charges and projectiles, at quite 

 short ranges, in rooms and barracks and other confined 

 spaces, with very great success in improving the 

 shooting power of soldiers, as we have been assured 

 by competent judges. 



Still target practice, though undoubtedly of the 

 highest value in its own way, and indeed probably 

 an almost essential preliminary to acquiring the art of 

 rifle-shooting, will not of itself alone, in our humble 

 judgment, make a man a really good shot at game 

 in the open field. To become that there must be the 

 practical experience in shooting at living and moving 

 animals. This axiom never received a better illustration 

 than it did in a rifle match between the i4th Hussars 

 and a party of Boer riflemen, held shortly after the 

 close of the war at Lady smith, Natal, in 1881. Here, 

 notwithstanding that the hussars had only their short 

 regimental carbines, and that the Boers were armed 

 with long-barrelled Winchester rifles, the Boers were 

 easily defeated, showing that though at long distances 

 and at targets the British soldier more than held his 

 own, still the sad fact remained that they could not. 

 come at all near the Boers in the field, where the marks 

 were living and moving objects at shorter but unknown 

 distances, f A British sergeant serving in the regi- 

 ment at the time describes the event in a few words, 

 given in the forcible style of barrack-room speech, 



* An invention of a Mr. Morris, by which a small bore tube is 

 slipped into an ordinary gun-barrel (sold by the Morris Tube Company,. 

 II, Haymarket, London). 



f See letters in the London Times of Jan. 10, 1894, signed "A 

 King's Hussar; " of Jan. 1 1, signed " A General of Cavalry ;" three letters, 

 in Times of Jan. 15, 1894, and one in that of Jan. 25. The ranges 

 seem to have been 200, 300, 500, and 600 yards. 



