446 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



I have lately been experimenting, in order to obtain a 

 projectile of considerable weight, which should have a corre- 

 sponding effect on these large animals to that of the small 

 Express on deer, etc. So far as target experiments go, 

 I think this has been well effected by employing a twelve 

 or sixteen gauge short conical, built up in segments, which 

 may be of any number desired (by preference four), and held 

 together by a jacket of lead, either cast or "s wedged" on. 

 The object is to get the ball to split up like an Express, 

 with the comparatively smaller charge of powder which the 

 limit of weight in the rifle will allow us to employ in such a 

 gauge. The " segment " bullet, as it may be called, effects 

 this perfectly, while the shock required to do it is still so 

 great as to ensure full penetration nearly to the vitals before 

 the breaking up commences. I incline to think that this 

 projectile will be found more destructive than the explosive 

 shell of similar gauge. The latter requires to have a large 

 chamber to break it up into fragments, which diminishes the 

 weight of its material, and also causes the pieces to be of 

 uncertain, and often very small, dimensions. The explosion 

 of the shell checks its progress a good deal, while with the 

 segment bullet there is no such action, and the breaking 

 up of it in the animal is effected by the resistance it meets 

 and overcomes, in process of which it of course effects a large 

 amount of damage. A sixteen gauge, with a bullet of this 

 kind one and a half diameter in length, carries four drachms 

 of powder pleasantly enough at nine and a half pounds' 

 weight ; and a twelve gauge takes Hve drachms at eleven 

 pounds' weight, and six drachms (the utmost that the longest 

 cases will hold) at twelve pounds'. Half a pound more might 

 be required in* the weight of each by those who object to 

 a moderate amount of recoil. I believe that these rifles will 



