SKILL IN TARGET-SHOOTING. 



501 



and the merit to increase as the probability, so estimated 

 diminishes. The range in this table of the quantity a, 

 or what may be termed the probable error from the 

 centre of a single shot, includes what may be taken as 

 the extremes of good and bad shooting : 



TABLE I. 



(6.) For the purpose of comparing this theory with 

 practice, I have been favoured with the series of an- 

 nual reports of the practice at the Grand National 

 Archery Meeting, with their target lists, and awards of 

 prizes, for fifteen successive years, commencing with 

 1850; which record the hits made by each competitor 

 in each of the colours, from specified distances, and 

 with specified numbers of arrows. The number of shots 

 delivered amounts, collectively, to upwards of half a 

 million; and excluding 169 cases in which it is noted 

 that the shooter did not deliver all his arrows, and those 

 comparatively much more rare ones in which the record 

 of the shots is incompatible with the awarded value 

 from some other cause than a mere misprint (which can 

 generally be rectified), to 474,384 ; of which 168,239 

 were hits, and 306,145 misses, on a target of 48 inches in 



