some large Chinese Guns, 185 



sist of bronze, were brought over to this country at the close of 

 the last and the preceding war with China. Several of these 

 guns are very interesting as specimens of the ingenuity and the 

 decorative skill of the Chinese. Some of the largest are beauti- 

 fully and very highly ornamented with elaborate carvings. In 

 external form these resemble the heavy guns of bronze and iron 

 produced in European countries, excepting that they are almost 

 uniform in diameter throughout their length. The thickness of 

 their metal is very considerable in proportion to their calibre. 

 Other of the guns are devoid of ornament, with the exception of 

 numerous projecting rings or narrow hoops, forming part of the 

 casting and distributed over the entire length of the gun. Some 

 of these particular guns contain linings of iron, the alloy which 

 composes the gun having evidently been cast upon a cylinder of 

 that metal. 



The majority of these Chinese cannon consist of metal closely 

 resembling brass in colour ; but a few among those most recently 

 brought to this country are even of a deeper colour than bronze. 

 A sample taken from one of the light- coloured guns was found 

 on analysis to have the following composition : — 



Copper 61-20 



Zinc 33-53 



Lead 3-50 



Tin 1-32 



Iron 0-42 



Arsenic ~\ 



A ,. >-.... traces 



Antimony J 



This metal is therefore similar in composition to ordinary brass, 

 but contains, in addition, somewhat considerable proportions of 

 lead and tin, which metals, however, together with the iron, 

 may have existed as impurities in the copper and zinc employed. 

 The metal composing the dark-coloured guns is very different 

 from the above. Samples were taken for analysis from three dif- 

 ferent parts of a gun, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it 

 consisted of the same metal throughout ; these furnished the 

 following per-centage results : — 



Metal taken from the 

 Muzzle. Trunnion. Breech. 



Copper . . 



. 95-88 



97-33 



97-28 



Tin ... 



0-15 







Antimony 



. 1-52 



0-46 



0-36 



Arsenic . . 



. 0-01 



0-22 



0-14 



Lead . . . 



0-68 



0-54 



0-66 



Bismuth . . 



. 0-01 



o-oi 



0-03 



Iron . . . , 



0-20 



0-10 



0-22 



Zinc . . . 



1-70 



1-30 



1-38 



