224 VARIETIES OF SHOT-GUNS, ETC. 



known to be as strong as any others, is a sufficient guarantee 

 of its efficiency. 



THE BREECH. 



The barrel or barrels having been brought to the condition 

 of tubes open at each end, in order to complete them, it be- 

 comes necessary to close one of these by some means, which 

 may be either a plug screwed in permanently, as in the per- 

 cussion gun, or temporarily, as in the needle-gun and some 

 other breech-loaders, or by some mechanical means keeping 

 a block of iron in close apposition with the end of the barrels. 

 These various methods must be described more minutely 

 under the respective guns to which they belong. 



PROVING. 



All shot-guns must now be proved twice before they can 

 be sold, according to an Act passed in the year 1855. The 

 first is called a " provisional proof," and is carried out when 

 the barrel is in the rough, but the second requires that it or 

 they shall be pretty nearly finished that is to say, if a 

 double gun, both barrels shall be soldered together, the 

 breeches adapted, and the nipples screwed in. By this change 

 in the method of proving, the trial is really a sufficient one, 

 and I believe we shall hear of fewer guns bursting every 

 year, as the old ones proved under the former regime become 

 displaced from general use. Revolving arms are only proved 

 once that is, after they are made up, for as the barrel is not 

 intended to contain the charge, it is not complete without 

 the addition of the chamber. Breech-loading guns, not being 

 revolvers, are tried provisionally as well as after they are 

 completed. The penalties for forging proof-marks and for 

 selling guns without them, are so heavy, that the offence, 

 I believe, is rarely committed. According to Schedule B. 

 of the "Gun-barrel Proof Act" of 1855, small arms are 

 divided into five classes, as follows : 



1st. Single barrelled military arms of smooth bore. 



2nd. Double barrelled military arms of smooth bore, and 

 all rifled arms whether double or single barrelled, not being 

 revolvers or breech loaders. 



