MOUNTAIN ARTILLERY PROGRESS. 
555 
transport of the carriage, three mules for transport of piece, and 
three for carriage complete. 
It is only necessary to describe the gun, as it is, perhaps, the most 
practical of the three, which are alike in principle. (Plate II.) 
The gun, of three separate loads, consists of A tube, 230 lbs.; jacket 
and binding screw, 1 52 lbs. ; and the breech-piece or powder chamber 
and hermetically-closing outer ring, 195 lbs. 
The A tube is of steel, rifled, 58'75 inches in length, and fits longi¬ 
tudinally into the outer jacket which reaches rather less than half the 
length of the former, the surfaces of contact being conic, by which 
arrangement of longitudinal instead of transverse combination, the 
junction of the component parts does not affect or interfere with the 
rifling, which is continuous from breech to muzzle. The powder 
chamber (157 lbs.) is joined transversely behind the longitudinal divi¬ 
sions by a screw and hermetically closing outer ring (38 lbs.), which 
completes the piece (577 lbs.) The total length of the gun is 70*42 
inches. Its service powder charge and projectiles (9^ lbs.) are the 
same as for the field gun of the same calibre, 75 mm , its initial velocity 
being also identical, 1530 f.s. It is impossible to pass an opinion on 
such a gun without some information as to the result of any practice 
trials. But, as in the Q.F. gun already described, the length of A 
tube exceeds the proper length of such for a mule load, the maximum 
for which should not exceed 54 inches. 
We have yet to provide a satisfactory successor to our 2*5-inch 
jointed gun, as the 20-pr. jointed howitzer is far too cumbersome an 
equipment to become a general service mountain gun. Indeed, apart 
from its other numerous disadvantages, the advantages of a howitzer 
under any circumstances would seem to be much exaggerated. None 
of the Continental Powers have adopted it, and, although it may be 
said that they all have low velocity guns, this is alone owing to their 
aversion hitherto, to introducing, for mountain service, a jointed gun 
of any description. However, the experiences of our jointed gun have 
not been lost on more than one Foreign Power. Without going over 
all the well-worn arguments, our present gun is of too small a calibre, 
and, bearing in mind this fact, and the advantage already mentioned 
of interchangeability of ammunition with our Horse Artillery gun, 
it really seems as if a 12-pr. B.L. gun should be our mountain gun 
for the future. 
Most Mountain Artillerists are agreed that we should not exceed 
the number of portions of our present gun, and, as regards the ques¬ 
tion of the number of ammunition mules in a battery, I think it may 
be accepted as a principle, that the number of mules required to 
transport the ammunition of a sub-division, should not exceed the 
number of rounds that one mule may carry. 100 rounds is considered 
the proper proportion per sub-division. One mule could carry 10 
rounds of 12-pr. ammunition, or 10 mules the amount for a sub¬ 
division. This would necessitate an increase of 24 mules to our 
present battery establishments. Not excessive. The weights of the 
gun must not exceed 4^ cwt., viz. :—210 lbs. each gun portion, and 84 
lbs. the breech-closing arrangement. What is the minimum muzzle 
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