64 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



Prussian light cavalry ; the sabre, too, is somewhat lighter. The French 

 light cavalry sabre, pattern of 1816 (j^^. 22''), has an iron scabbard, the 

 blade {fig. 22^ and 22*") is strongly curved backwards, but has no groove, 

 only a round back and sharply wedge-shaped edge. The hilt {fig. 22 ') is 

 something lighter than the preceding, has a stool, and the gripe is rather 

 straighter. The same sabre, pattern of 1822 {fig. 23*), with iron scabbard, 

 has a strongly curved blade {fig. 23^ and 23'') with narrow groove, broad 

 back, and bluntly wedge-shaped edge. The hilt {fig. 23") has no cross- 

 guard, but the stool round behind. The officers' sabres {figs. 24 and 25) 

 are lighter, have no basket, but only a simple bow and a more elegant gripe. 

 The blades are mostly after the form in fig. 2P, or fig. 23°, or even entirely 

 smooth, c. Infantry sabres : The common infantry sabre {fig. 15) is in 

 a leather scabbard, little curved, the blade often without grooves, flat wedge- 

 shaped edge, the hilt furnished only with a brass bow and cross-guard, and 

 is carried in this form by most armies ; the French army, on the contrary, 

 has adopted in modern times a two-edged infantry sword {fig. 17), resem- 

 bling the ancient Greek, and called " poignard-sabre" from its being more 

 like a dagger than a sword. The French artillery sabre {pi. 25, fig. 16*) is 

 very short, straight, and the blade {fig. 16**) with peculiar grooves, has a 

 very heavy tang, in order that the sabre may be used not only as a weapon 

 but also as an intrenching tool. The yatagan {fig. 26), which the expedi- 

 tion to Algiers has brought into the French army, is a dagger-like sabre, 

 with double curved blade about two feet long, the gripe without cross-guard. 



2. Thrusting weapons, a. The lance. Theold French lance (^^. 13), pattern 

 of 1812, has a head quadrangular below and running out in a long quadran- 

 gular pyramid to a point ; this is put upon the staff without any prongs. 

 Much better than this is the pattern of 1823 {fig. 14) with long prongs, and 

 this, with slight variations, is the one used by other armies, b. The bayonet. 

 The most ancient form of this {fig. 5) is merely a lance-head, which was 

 stuck into the musket barrel by its wooden staff*. Afterwards came a 

 bayonet {fig. 6) with curved neck and three-sided, reed-shaped blade, which 

 was slipped on to the barrel by a slit socket and turned so as to catch 

 against a stud on the same, which prevented its being pulled off*. The 

 modern bayonet {fig. 7) has a long, triangular, hollowed, straight blade, 

 arched neck, and is fixed over a rivet, then turned in and fastened by the 

 bayonet catch. The bayonet for the percussion-musket {fig. 11) has only 

 one thick, ring-formed projection, over which the hook of the bayonet-spring 

 (which is fastened to the stock) catches. The blade is very long, three- 

 edged, flat, and sharp pointed. Two bayonets of diff*erent forms, the so-called 

 sabre-bayonets, are shown in fig. 12. 



3. Projectile weapons, a. Muskets. Fig. 1 is the common infantry 

 musket with flint lock, as now used where the percussion-musket {fig. 8) 

 is not adopted. A somewhat larger kind of percussion arm is the wall-piece 

 {fig. 9"), which has a rifled bore and throws a two ounce ball ; it is designed 

 for the defence of forts. The French artillery have a shorter musket {fig. 2), 

 a kind of carbine with a flint lock, and a long bayonet. The cavalry have 

 carbines {fig. 3) with flint locks and a bow, in the ring of which the car- 



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