26 ELEVATION. 



best makers (I should give offence perhaps if I said 

 the best maker) now in London. This gun shot beau- 

 tifully ; but no better than my 2 feet 8 barrels ! 

 " Now then, sir," said many in the trade, " won't you be 

 convinced that your extra two inches are superfluous ?" 

 At first I began to, what is vulgarly called, " draw in 

 my horns ;" but I soon discovered what was the matter. 

 A 2 feet 10 gun, with the rib no more elevated than 

 a 2 feet 8 gun, invariably puts the body of the charge 

 under the mark at all distances beyond about 35 yards. 

 I therefore had this gun botched up, for mere experi- 

 ment, with more elevation : and then there was not a 

 detonater in my possession that stood any chance with 

 it. This was merely giving enough elevation, supposing 

 the object to be within point-blank range, and stationary, 

 or going straight on. But, when we consider that all 

 objects above 40 yards are so far beyond point-blank 

 range, that, if the gun is not kept well up, the shot 

 will fall from its own gravity; that a long snap-shot is 

 always at a rising, and not at a straight-forward-going 

 bird; and that if a good shot misses through being 

 nervous, it is almost always because his left hand drops 

 as he flinches i we should rarely err by somewhat over- 

 elevating our guns. I never perhaps should have proved 

 this, but from experiments with large coast-guns, which, 

 as I before observed, like large telescopes, bring things 

 to light ; and, by means of being fired sometimes on 

 water as smooth as a looking-glass, give a decided evi- 

 dence of all the effects that are produced in, gunnery. 

 With regard to elevation in proportion to length, my 

 friend General Shrapnell will tell you what has here 

 been said; and so will the Baron de Berenger, who 

 showed me a very clever scale on elevations, and there- 



