
GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 
is fired I run the cleaner through the bar- 
rel several times before the residue is dry. 
Then on arriving home clean well with 
good gun oil and my rifles to-day are as 
bright inside as when they left the factory. 
Townsend Whelen, Philadelphia, Pa. 

AS DID OUR FOREFATHERS. 
B. A. BROOME. 
I have hunted the large and small game 
of Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas 
and the Cherokee strip with an armament 
consisting of a .44 caliber, ’73 model Win- 
chester, a 12 gauge Parker double barreled 
But never 
shotgun and a .45 revolver. 

have I enjoyed a season’s shooting more 
than I did last fall when I used almost ex- 
clusively an old flintlock rifle made in 18109. 
During a few weeks’ hunting in the Con- 
necticut valley I managed to get several 
squirrels, a few ducks, a big blue heron 
and one rabbit. 
The true love and fascination of a hunt- 
er’s life came to me when I found myself 
hurriedly examining the powder in the pan 
of my ancient gun, while overhead a long 
string of black duck flew toward the 
marsh. When a big gray squirrel, startled 
from his search for fallen nuts, scampered 
to a high limb of a chestnut or birch, and 
I—in spite of the weight of my gun and 
the disconcerting flash almost under my 
nose—knocked his head off with a .52 cal- 
iber round bullet—t! :n I felt that I was 
indeed a hunter. 
It was at such times that I realized why 
old Leather Stocking loved his ‘“‘kill-deer.”’ 
Once in a while only the powder in the 
pan would flash and again only a few 
sparks from the flint would follow the fall 
of the hammer. On these occasions the 
squirrel or the duck would disappear long 
before I could reprime my weapon. But 
I bore them no grudge and their good for- 
tune only prolonged my pleasure, for I 
knew a time would come when more than 
the pan powder woulda flash. 
So through the fall I went, my old friend 
of 1819 on my arm, a big powder horn and 
a buckshot pouch over my shoulder, one 
time using shot, the next a patched bul- 
let; and it was strange how rapidly my 
trophies accumulated and my longing for 
game was satisfied. 
When my vacation was over I packed 
with my cun, powder horn and shot pouch 
a fine heron skin and a little mat of rab- 
bit skin with a border of gray squirrel fur. 
s 
- of interest. 
295 
On leaving my hunting ground I felt I 
had come nearer to living the natural life 
of those days when there were “mighty 
hunters before the Lord” than if I had car- 
ried a .30-30 and succeeded in sending 
a steel bullet crashing through every wild 
thing I saw. 

THE THEORY OF DRIFT. 
GARRETT P. SERVISS, JR. 
In April RECREATION, under the caption 
“The Theory of Drift,’ Mr. Carlin criti- 
cises my letter in the February number. 
My explanation was incomplete only, 
and not incorrect; and, moreover, it is the 
only general explanation which may be 
applied to all cases. Mr. Carlin’s expla- 
nation does not deal with the drift of pro- 
jectiles of shapes othe: than elongated and 
pointed, while mine applies to any pos- 
sible form; and in all bullets the action 
which I describe may have more to do in 
producing drift than my critic imagines. 
Especially would it do so in trajectories 
with a high angle of elevation. The fact 
that the bullet tips backward in its flight 
only helps the action which I describe by 
increasing the resistance on the under 
side. - 
Mr. Carlin makes the somewhat amaz- 
ing statement that the trajectory of a bul- 
let is an ellipse. It is easily proved that 
the course. of a body im vacuo is a parab- 
ola; but careful experiments have failed 
to determine any law for air resistance. 
Bowser says that at low velocities the re- 
sistance varies directly as the-velocity, but 
as the latter increases the law changes to 
a variation as the square of velocity. 
This in turn becomes a law of variation as 
the cube of the velocity, until at 1,200 feet 
per second the law goes back again to the 
square. If the curve was an ellipse the 
question of air resistance could be imme- 
diately settled by means of the calculus; so 
it is evident that the curve is not an el- 
lipse. Possibly it is a curve of a much 
higher order, or else a series of different 
curves. 
Mr. Carlin’s explanation is clear except 
at one place. He shows how the 2 rota- 
tions tend to take place at right angles 
and then says it is easily proved that 
the projectile will not yield fully to either 
of the forces. This is not so easily 
proved, and a word on this point may be 
This principle is that of the 
gyrostat and has been investigated by such 
eminent men as Lord Kelvin and Profes- 
sor Blackburn, and a mathematical expla- 
nation has been given by Professor Jellet. 
A simple illustration will answer our pur- 
