144 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



size, but not passed through sieves as is the foreign custom. Hence the great irregularity 

 in size of the pellets. 



For bullets natives generally use chunks of nailrod iron, i^ inch long. Seldom is 

 lead employed. 



It must be borne in mind that the native rarely shoots ground game, as, from the fact 

 that he carries no ramrod and uses no wadding, he is obliged to carry his gingal at a high 

 angle : otherwise the shot would roll out. 



FIRE-ARMS, m ^ 



The ordinary matchlock or gingal consisted, as it does even to-day, of an iron barrel, 

 5 feet long, with a bore of about one-third of an inch ; the iron is thickest at the breech and 

 tapers gradually towards the muzzle. The bore at the breech is about the size of a 

 half-dollar coin ; at the muzzle about that of a 5-cent piece. This narrowing of the bore 

 gives a greater velocity to the charge, and anticipated, by more than a thousand years, the 

 choke-bore guns which are in such general favour to-day. The barrel at the breech is 

 provided with a small aperture into which a bit of iron plate is inserted, and serves the 

 purpose of a pan. The stock of the matchlock is made of wood, and shaped like the handle 

 of the carpenter's plane. Percussion caps are not used in native firearms, but ignition 

 is effected by a smouldering match-rope or joss-stick attached to hammer. 



Note. — The woodcuts in this chapter do not exhibit a particularly high art standard. The original drawings 

 were the work of a native amateur, and were well done. However, rough as the cuts are, they will, 

 for all practical purposes, convey the artist's meaning. 



