452 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



great was the demand for these far-famed barrels, and so eager 

 was every one to possess them, that it was not uncommon so Blain 

 informs us for purchasers to be found at twenty, thirty, and even 

 forty pounds for a single barrel. 



The labor bestowed upon the manufacture of these barrels was 

 exceeded alone by that of the operatives on Damascus arms ; and to 

 such an extent was the hammering of the lusty smith carried, that 

 it was not unusual for a mass of stubs, weighing from forty to fifty 

 pounds, to be reduced by repeated beatings to a rod sufficient only 

 to make a single barrel. By this long and arduous process the 

 utmost ductility, tenacity, and purity were acquired, which ren- 

 dered these guns superior for safety and shooting-powers to all 

 other manufactures. Spanish barrels are no longer sought after 

 with the same eagerness as in former times, owing to many circum- 

 stances that have operated to prejudice the public against them, as 

 well as the present superior character of the stub-twist manufac- 

 tured by English artists, and which, we opine, cannot be ex- 

 celled by any barrels coming either from Spain or the East. 



Great deception was practised in the getting up and sale of 

 Spanish barrels as soon as it was known that there was such a 

 demand for them in England, a demand, in truth, which could not 

 be supplied in the ordinary course of trade, as there was not suffi- 

 cient genuine stub-metal in all Spain to make these barrels fast 

 enough for their foreign, much less their home, consumption. In- 

 ferior barrels consequently were imported from Spain, having the 

 names of the most celebrated makers of Madrid engraved on them. 

 Nor was this the only deception practised upon the public, for 

 Spanish barrels were actually counterfeited in the manufactories 

 of Germany, and the country consequently soon became flooded 

 with the most worthless and spurious trash imaginable, all purport- 

 ing to be of real Spanish origin. 



There is considerable difference between a stub-twist and a 

 wire-twist, or a stub-twist and a plain-twist. All twists are not 

 stub-twists ; neither is it necessary for all stub-barrels to be twisted 

 barrels. Although there is a wide difference between all these 



