THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE It. 103 
work and the metal come together; which is one of the 
principal points of superiority in London-made guns to all 
others; it seeming impossible in them that the air itself, 
much less a mote of dust or a drop of dampness, should 
penetrate the accurate suture. 
The lock-plates externally should be rubbed and oiled, 
as should the trigger-guard, the heel-plate, and, in fact, all 
the iron work of the stock. The wood, which in the 
finest English guns is now put up merely in oil, with no 
French varnish to be scratched at the first encounter with 
stock or stone, and thenceforward always to show bruised 
and ragged, needs only plenty of elbow grease and a little 
furniture oil to keep it in perfect condition. The ramrod 
must be oiled, reinserted in its pipes, and the gun is clean, 
ready to be shot again to-morrow, or to be laid by in its 
case until once more wanted in the field. 
If the latter, lay a treble-folded linen rag, dipped in 
the clarified oil and pressed dry, between the striker and 
the nipples; lay a single fold of the same over each muz- 
zle, and force it down with a wad inside it, about twe 
inches into the barrel. 
Clarified oil is made by putting a handful of rusty 
nails, old iron, or shot, into a bottle of the best salad oil. 
Tn less than a month all the impurities of the oil will sink 
and collect about the metals, and the residue, when drawn 
off carefully, instead of itself promoting, will prevent 
oxidization. 
“ From the peculiar construction of detonating locks,” 
T quote from a clever little English work by “ Craven,” 
under a title similar to my own, “they should not be 
