206 COLONEL hanger's 



treat on the general system of projectiles, 

 or the deficiency of muskets in present use, 

 it would be too prohx and extraneous to my 

 present object and views, respecting this 

 proposed corps and my universal gun, for so 

 Icall it, and such on proof it will be found 

 to he.^ 



* At three hundred yards the gun I speak of was 

 tried in the following manner. The target was a 

 board, two feet broad, and only three feet high. The 

 bull's eye in the ceiure. 1 shot dozion zoindy on the 

 sands of the sea, at low water, lying down on a liorse- 

 cloth on my belly. I had a lump of wood before me, 

 on which was placed uiy hat, to rest the gun on. I 

 imogine the whole heiglu, to the crown of the hat, 

 was about two feet from the ground. This, of course, 

 gave to the muzzle of the gun, three or four inches 

 depressioJi y so that my gun, at some distance beyond 

 the target, must have pointed into the sands. How- 

 ever, notwithstanding this, I found that the ball, when 

 it passed on one side of the target, never struck the 

 bands, under full sixty yards beyond the target. Now, 

 provided my gun had been laid in a direct horizontal 

 level, to the centre of the bull's eye, or had had the 

 ii"!uzzle of it two or three inches elevated, instead of 

 being depressed, (I speak to experienced riflemen,) 

 would my gun not have been entitled to throw the 

 ball CO mider ably further before it struck the sands ? — 

 Now, supposing I had shot at a target, at three bun- 



