106 LOADING. 



and a half of shot. The proportion for a twelve 

 pounds gun to be doubled; eighteen pounds trebled; 

 twenty-four pounds quadrupled, &c. with one trifling 

 deviation ; viz. the larger the gun the less should be 

 the proportion of shot, as the larger and longer the 

 caliber the more powder may be damaged in going 

 down it, 



Much more may be fired, but not always with ease 

 to the shoulder. (The powder I have measured by 

 apothecaries 9 weight, the shot by avoirdupois). 



The same proportion will hold good from a lady's 

 gun to the firearms of a punt shooter, though it 

 may, in a trifling degree, be altered, as barrels shoot 

 thin or close. 



Although I have mentioned being guided by weight 

 as one way of regulating a charge, yet this is not the 

 most correct means to be used, with regard to the 

 powder, for the following reason, which is not ge- 

 nerally known : As sportsmen charge by measure, 

 the gunpowder makers endeavour to include, in the 

 space to be filled, as much weight as possible ; arid 

 in so doing, include as much projectile force as the 

 composition is capable of; it is, therefore, evidently 

 better to be guided in the powder by measure. All 

 the powder made for the king's service is exposed to 

 the air of the magazine, with the door open all day, 

 for three weeks, before it undergoes a second proof, 

 to ascertain whether it will imbibe moisture, and 

 increase in weight, which if it does beyond a certain 

 small allowance, it is rejected. 



