DETONATING SYSTEM. 8? 



my man, that he never had the pleasure to see me 

 make such long shots as I was once in the habit of 

 doing ; and I, ready to lay all the fault on myself, or 

 rather to a premature attack of that anno domini com- 

 plaint which must befall the best of us, felt that I dare 

 not blame a system which my superiors had so uni- 

 versally adopted. I took up a flint-gun. This was 

 worse and worse ; as its comparative slowness made me 

 miss even fair shots. The next year, however, having 

 been prevented, by illness, from taking a gun in hand 

 till just before the end of the season, the sensation of 

 firing a flint and a detonater became as it were de novo. 

 I accordingly took out aj#m-gun, and down came the 

 long shots, as in former days ! I name this as a simple 

 fact. Let others argue the point as they please. So 

 I shall now conclude the subject by reducing the 

 matter to a very few words. Can you shoot well with 

 a flint-gun? Yes! Then " leave well enough alone!" 

 Can you ? No ! Then, by all means, go and get a 

 detonater ! 



I have now, I hope and trust, fairly and disinterestedly 

 stated all that is necessary, both for and against the 

 detonating system, which, at no small expense, I have 

 tried by every kind of experiment, in order to be able 

 to give my opinion to the public independent, instead 

 of with the assistance, of gunmakers. But, before I 

 close the subject, let me not appear inconsistent : I 

 still maintain that the detonater has not the power 

 of the flint-gun, and yet I admit that, by a different 

 mode of boring, the percussion-guns are now wonder- 

 fully improved : insomuch as to be almost equal in 

 strength to the flint-guns. Nay, I will say even more : 



