Pototier. 



ALL this trouble with guns would be ill bestowed, 

 if we neglected a due attention to the care and choice 

 of this article. 



Gunpowder, when good, is made of ingredients 

 perfectly pure, properly mixed, and judiciously pro- 

 portioned. 



The principal ingredient, saltpetre, should be 

 entirely divested of marine salt, as that is a great 

 obstacle to the production of good powder, of which 

 there is, in all saltpetre, a certain, and often a con- 

 siderable quantity ; and, in proportion as it is more 

 or less freed from that impurity, so the powder will 

 be more or less liable to imbibe damp air, and be- 

 come proportionally moist and weak. But when it 

 is perfectly freed from marine salt, the powder will 

 suffer but little diminution of its strength from being 

 carelessly kept, or even openly exposed to a moist 

 atmosphere, as what it might, by this means, have 

 lost, would be presently restored by drying it. 



Your powder should always be properly dried; 

 in order to do which, make two or three plates very 

 hot, before the fire, and (first taking care to wipe 



