98 SHOT. 



both these plans repeatedly, but could not find suf- 

 ficient advantage in either to justify my recommend- 

 ing them. The object of both is to prevent the gun 

 from leading ; and, as they can do no harm, I should, 

 if a choice readily offered, prefer using the shot un- 

 glazed, or oiled, for the chances of any trifling ad- 

 vantages which may be thereby derived. 



NEW PATENT SHOT. 



MR. Joseph Mariton has obtained a patent for one 

 of the greatest possible improvements in shot, which 

 simply consists in mixing a little quicksilver with 

 the lead. By means of this process the shot is ren- 

 dered harder and heavier, and wholly divested of the 

 arsenic, which was one of the chief objections to the 

 original patent shot. 



The advantages thus derived are, that shot of a 

 small size, which lies the most compact, and there- 

 fore always answers best, in the calibers of small guns, 

 has, from its additional weight, the same force as 

 shot of rather a larger size ; and the game, after 

 being killed with this shot, will keep much longer. 

 Moreover, by the foregoing process, the shot becomes 

 as clean as silver to handle, or carry loose in the 

 pocket ; and its friction, when firing, leads the calibers 

 little or nothing in comparison to the old shot. 



An advantage, too, above all the others, I should 

 not omit to mention, is, that in this shot the surface 

 of every pellet is precisely alike, owing to a different 



