156 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
Recoil .—Mean as before, with tbe 3J-lb. charges; with the 6-lb. charges 
the gun recoiled 6 ft. up the inclines, a space of 7 ft. intervening between the 
foot of wedge and centre of wheel; with the higher charges the gun ran 
up rather violently, and had to be checked by means of handspikes placed in 
front of the wheels; the hurter was also protected by sand-bags. 
The ammunition for the 8~in. E. howitzer had now been all expended, but 
there remained 50 rounds of common shell for the 64-pr. E.M.L. gun, which 
the Committee determined to devote to complete the breach in the parapet 
of No. 2 gun-portion, commenced by the five rounds fired on 24th; and 
after this had been accomplished, to endeavour to reach the magazine in the 
traverse between Nos. 3 and 4 gun-portions. 
Tenth Day's Tiring. 
(Thursday, November 26th, 1874.) 
Common shell, from 64-pr. E.M.L. gun, 10-lb. charge, E.L. percussion 
fuzes. 
(a) Twenty rounds (general Nos. 249 to 268) were fired at 1^° eleva¬ 
tion, from the 1000 yds. range, against the former cut in the right-hand 
corner of No. 2 gun-portion. Eighteen shells struck the target battery, but 
three of these ivere blind. The result was a breach or cut through the 
parapet, reaching the interior crest, and laying open the gun-portion at the 
eighteenth round—or the twenty-third, counting the shells previously fired 
at the same spot. Its width at interior crest was 7 ft. by 2 ft. 9 ins. deep, 
and at the exterior crest it was 16 ft. wide by 5 ft. deep. Eound No. 264 
cut down the bannerol. The twenty rounds were fired in half-an-hour. 
(See section, Plate II.) 
(b) Ten rounds from “C ” battery, 1452yds. range, were next fired (general 
Nos. 269 to 278), the bannerol being placed on the traverse immediately 
above the magazine; elevations, by quadrant, 2° 42' to 2° 60'. The result 
was very slight, only one round—No. 278, fired at 2° 51' elevation—gave a 
crater on top of battery, 12| ft. by 4 ft. by 2| ft. deep. One shell burst in 
the gun. 
The sand-bags of the embrasures in battery “ C ”■—of the bottle-neck shape 
—frequently took fire, and the gunners had to get into the embrasures to 
pour buckets of water over them. 
(c) The remaining twenty rounds (general Nos. 279 to 298) were fired 
from the 1000 yds. range as before, except that the bannerol over the maga¬ 
zine in traverse was the object aimed at. The result upon the target battery 
of the concluding thirty rounds was a crater reaching 29J ft. from the 
exterior crest, and 20 ft. wide at the junction of the traverse and parapet, the 
maximum depth being 3 ft. (See section, Plate IT.) The magazine below 
remained uninjured. The damage to the screen extended across its whole 
width, being 10ft. wide at exterior, and 20ft. at interior crest; depth, 
1J ft. inside and 3| ft. outside. 
In reviewing briefly the results of the experiments, it appears that 24 ft. 
of earth affords a tolerably good protection against the direct fire of rifled 
