ELEVATION. 27 



fore it would not be fair in me to publish one ; as, by 

 so doing, I should more or less have to copy the sketches 

 of the baron. Enough of this dry subject ; so now let 

 the gunmakers, and many sportsmen, recollect that up 

 to 1830 there has still been something for them to 

 learn ! How contemptible therefore is it for any man to 

 fancy himself or his works perfection ! Now I dare say 

 the gunmakers will tell you they knew all this before ! 

 If so, then, why have they not profited by it ? 



N.B. To try not only the elevation, but more par- 

 ticularly the putting together of your barrels, and the 

 casting off of your stock, fire at a stump, or any other 

 object, in SMOOTH WATER ; because you may fill a 

 quire of paper with shot, without the body of the charge 

 going precisely to the centre. But water will demon- 

 strate every thing if you are attended by competent 

 persons to take observation. 



If the body of the charge goes to the same wrong 

 point several times In succession, you may conclude 

 that there is something about the gun not quite right. 

 But you may shoot at paper, away from water, for 

 seven years, and not be able to find this out so well. 

 Give me quires of paper to try the strength and close- 

 ness, but a stump, or cork, in still water, to try the 

 accurate shooting of a gun. It need scarcely be ob- 

 served that there should not be a breath of wind when 

 you do this. The water should be like a mirror. No 

 better time than one of those fine butterfly-days that 

 usually follow a night's pinching white frost; and 

 which, by the way, are almost always the prelude to 

 miserably wet \veather. 



I have, by the foregoing plan, found out many a 

 gunmaker's blunders; and I am therefore serving all 



