XIU 



INTRODUCTION. 



From my boyhood upwards, I have been taxed by the facetious 

 with shooting-Madness, and truly a most delightful mania 1 haA^e 

 ever found it. My first essay in practical gunnery was made at 

 the early age of six, by the discharge of an enormous blunderbuss, 

 known to the inmates of my paternal mansion by the familiar 

 sobriquet of "Betsey." A flock of sparrows perched upon the 

 corner of a neighbour's pigstye, were the only sufferers; but 

 information was maliciously laid against me, and I underwent 

 severe corporal chastisement. About a year afterwards I took 

 ample revenge upon my ill-natured neighbour, hy pinking his ducks 

 and geese with a cross-bow of my own construction ; but my 

 catapult was unfortunately discovered, seized, and confiscated. I 

 next clubbed my Christmas capital with that of tMo sporting 

 confederates, and raised a sufficient joint-stock to purchase a con- 

 demned musket, Avith which, during the holiday vacation, we shot, 

 and tyed. But the partnership proving unsatisfactory, it was soon 

 dissolved by mutual consent, and I found myself sole and un- 

 disputed Master of the Ordnance. From this eventful and dignified 

 epoch in my life, I date my rapid improvement in the noble science 

 of projectiles. 



After this sketch of my puerile biography, it is scarcely necessary 

 to inform the reader that I was considered by my partial friends to 

 be fitthig food for shot and powder. Accordingly I was entered at 

 the Military College, where my worthy superiors having pro- 



