SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 14S 



the great increase of the powder. Now we 

 will suppose, gentlemen, that your rifle 

 barrel shall weigh only four pounds, and 

 shall carry a ball twenty to the pound : 

 put you half the weight of the ball in 

 powder, in your rifle, and your rifle, when 

 fired, shall knock you backwards, — where- 

 as, w^hen my rifle is loaded with half the 

 weight of the ball in powder, and fired^ my 

 rifle shall go off, as all rifles should, plea- 

 santly and without the smallest recoil. — 

 Gentlemen, I can assure you, on my word, ^can^RiSt 

 that the American riflemen have but one Riflemen.'' 

 siglu behind to their guns : I mean, by this, 

 that they have no rising-sight, by which to 

 give their guns a greater degree of eleva- 

 tion ; and that one sight is not above two 

 sixteenths of an inch in height above the 

 barrel. I do believe, that, if he shot at a 

 man standing still, at four hundred yards^ 

 by only aiming at the man's head, that he 

 would drop the ball into his breast, not lower^ 

 or go so near to him as to alarm him devil- 

 ishly. — Pray, what does this precision in 

 shooting at so great a distance, without 

 using a more elevated sight, proceed from ? 



