118 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
I speak positively, on conviction founded on long use, 
frequent experiment, and most accurate examination. 
T have a rifle of this plan, carrying a ball of 80 to the 
Ib. if round, of about double that weight, if acorn-shaped— 
which I have fired several hundred times, with my bare 
hand exactly under the point of junction, and never have 
been sensible of the least escape of gas; nor are either of 
the metallic faces in the slightest degree burnt, corroded, 
or altered in appearance, by the sharp firing to which they 
have been subjected. 
From forty to fifty shots have been fired in succession, 
with cartridges made from Dupont’s filthy gunpowder, 
and, though the operation of opening and reclosing the 
breech was, in a slight degree, checked, it was not seri- 
ously impeded. With cartridges filled with good sporting 
powder, I have fired thirty shots a day three days in suc- 
cession, without cleaning, for the purpose of testing its 
operation, and have found no difficulty with the arm. 
The military pieces, both carbines and pistols, have 
the loading-breeches arranged to play somewhat more 
- easily than those of finer fabric; and I prefer the former, 
as equally free from the escape of the gas, and as more 
convenient in service. 
The weapons are—as will be seen at once from the fol- 
lowing sketch, displaying, first, the rifle closed and ready for 
firing ; second, the rifle with the trigger and trigger-guard 
turned forward, and the orifice of the chamber thrown 
upward, to receive the charge; and third, the loading- 
breech, taken out for the purpose of cleaning—singularly 
symmetrical, handy, and even elegant of form. 
