OF THE OLD WORLD. 477 



system. He uses a short barrel, having a hexag- 

 onal bore and a very quick turn ; for whereas the 

 Enfield rifle has only one turn in 6 feet G inches, 

 and therefore only half a turn in the barrel of the 

 Enfield, which is 3 feet 3 inches, he has a 4o-inch 

 bore, with one turn in twenty inches, which rotation 

 is sufiicient with a bullet of the requisite specific 

 gravity. Mr Whitworth has reached such a pitch 

 of accuracy, that in a shed excluded from the influ- 

 ence of wind, and firing from a beautifully-contrived 

 rest, at five hundred yards he can put any number 

 of consecutive balls within a space less than that 

 occupied by a five-shilling piece ; and it is said that 

 he will not be contented until he can throw a bullet 

 from the barrel of one rifle into the barrel of another 

 placed at five hundred yards' distance. His ordinary 

 rifles are guaranteed, in the hands of a good marks- 

 man, to be true at the same distance within eight 

 inches. When his rifle was tested at Hythe with a 

 Kegulation Enfield, the eflSciency of the one as com- 

 pared with the other was as twenty to one : Colonel 

 Wilford saying the Whitworth was better at eight 

 hundred yards than the Enfield at five hundred. 

 Beyond one thousand one hundred yards the Enfield 

 must cease firing even at large masses, while Whit- 

 worth's can do business at two thousand. Indeed, 

 rifling seems to be in its infancy, and range must 

 only cease with the power of the human eye to take 

 an aim. If Mr Whitworth applies his peculiar prin- 

 ciple of rifling and extreme accuracy of boring to 



