302 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



the following principles, which are as firmly established 

 as the law of gravity: 



ist. No body can describe a curve unless constantly 

 acted upon by two forces one of which must be a con- 

 stantly increasing force. 



2d. Whenever a ball is released from the increasing 

 force which curves its course, its path will at once 

 change to a straight line. 



3d. This line will be a tangent to the curve that con- 

 stituted the path of the ball before its release from 

 the force that curved its course. 



4th. No tangent to a curve can reach the same 

 place that the curve itself would arrive at. 



When a gun-barrel is held at the shoulder and moved 

 sidewise in following crossing game the muzzle 

 moves much faster than the breech. And the ball is 

 therefore subjected to a constantly increasing force 

 from one side. This increasing force combining with 

 the forward motion imparted by the powder must pro- 

 duce a curve, although it is apparently a straight line. 

 If any one doubts this let him take a string, double it 

 and loop it over a nail on a board, then holding the 

 two ends together and moving them sidewise like the 

 pendulum of a clock run a lead-pencil down between 

 the strings. He will find that, though the strings 

 be straight and the path of the pencil apparently a 

 straight line, it is actually a curve. Now how can 

 this curve continue after the sidewise action of 

 the barrel ceases ? And how can the ball reach the 

 game unless that curve does continue ? There is no 

 escape from it; the lateral-motion advocates have 

 solved the problem of shooting around the corner 

 without even bending the gun-barrel; we have only to 

 whirl the gun fast enough and around goes the ball; 



