BARRELS* 17 



therefore & four teen gauge barrel, and see whether or 

 not I am right for recommending one of two feet ten 

 inches, and three feet, where it can be used without 

 inconvenience ! But mind one grand point have plenty 

 of metal near the breech-end ; not only for strong 

 shooting, but for good elevation. Let all barrels be 

 tapered like a bulrush: no hollowing out, as this 

 ruins their shooting. 



It may be thought a bold assertion, but I have every 

 reason to believe that we have all, to this very day, 

 been completely in the dark about the length of guns. 

 Mr. Daniel (speaking of a duck-gun) said that a barrel, 

 three feet eight inches, is " as capable, or more so, of 

 throwing shot sharp and distant, as a barrel two feet 

 longer." In my second edition (deceived in the same 

 manner that all the gunmakers have been, by not having 

 made their trials on a sufficiently large scale) I gave it 

 as an opinion, that, except the aim being better, and 

 the recoil less, a long gun had no advantage over a short 

 one. On the contrary, I have now proved that a short 

 gun has no chance with a long one, in keeping the shot 

 well together at long distances. 



The experiment must not be tried with little pop- 

 guns that are used for pigeons and partridges, but by 

 guns on a gigantic scale, by which we can make every 

 observation in the clearest possible manner, with the 

 same advantage that an astronomer, with his large tele- 

 scope, has over the naked eye, or diminutive glass, in 

 discovering a planet. 



I had once made up my mind, that a barrel, of what- 

 ever size it might be, would kill the farthest if made 

 forty-eight times the diameter of the intended caliber, 

 and entered in the MSS. for my third edition some 



c 



