340 



THE SPORTING RIFLE. 



to the sportsman. It is extremely simple in its action, and 

 can be loaded with the utmost ease ; but it is open to the 

 objection of escape at the breech, and on that account is 

 rather to be avoided by the sportsman, excepting for special 

 purposes such as buffalo hunting, where easy loading on 

 horseback is a great object. With regard to any credit 

 which may accrue to the inventor, his rifle appears to me to 

 be clearly a modification of Restell's (see fig. 84), and of the 

 Comte de Chateauvillier's gun (see figs. 58 and 59). 



This rifle is constructed as follows : Fig. 86 represents the 

 rifle with the breech open, ready for loading; all that is 

 necessary for this purpose being to raise the lever a b, when 

 the chamber f is exposed, and after pushing the cartridge 

 forward through this into the barrel, the lever is depressed, 

 the sliding plug d is driven forward by the shoulder c 

 striking against f, and the breech is closed. When this 

 is done, the parts occupy the position shown in fig. 87. It 



WESTLEY RICHARDS' RIFLE CLOSED. (HALF SIZE.) 



will be seen, that by the form of the back of the chamber 

 at f the plug cannot easily rise by the force of the 

 explosion, being confined down partly by a spring at b, 

 and partly by the undercutting of the plug at/! The bore 

 of the carbine is small, being about fifty-two, and therefore 



