to he fired horizontally from a common gun. 5 
he observes, when speaking of rifles, and the rotatory motion 
of the ball, “ I-have made some experiments on simpler 
methods of performing this, and applicable to iron bullets. 
My success as yet has not been what I could wish, but it has 
however been sufficient to encourage a farther prosecution,' 
which, if I shall ever pursue farther, I know not.” vol. i. p. 
317. That eminent mathematician has left us no clue to 
discover what his plan was; but in his tracts, he dwells so 
much on the. effects which the resistance of the air is capable 
of producing on the flight of shot, that one can hardly fail to 
be impressed with the idea, that it must have been in some 
way or other connected with that medium. 
I shall nojv proceed to give a brief account of the experi¬ 
ments that have been made for the purpose of attaining the 
object in view. The first difficulty which presented itself, 
was that of applying the principle to shot of a spherical 
figure.. The utter hopelessness of getting the air to act in 
the way desired, upon shot of this shape, soon led me to . 
prefer the cylindrical to the spherical form., and it is to the 
improvement of that figure of shot accordingly, my subse¬ 
quent endeavours have been directed. 
My first experiments were made merely for amusement, 
for the purpose of shooting seals and sea-birds, in Bantry 
Bay, during the summer of 1821. Though not very success¬ 
ful, they were repeated from time to time as opportunity 
offered. , ; 
Hemispherical ends to the balls were thought of, and after¬ 
wards abandoned, as it was found desirable to dispose of thb 
wdght of the ball in such a mamier as to give the greatest 
possible length to the sides. Grooves of various kinds were 
