a block of withy.) He was accidentally prevented from coming to Keyhaven, while Varley was there with his telescope; so I got a good substitute, Henry Troth (who purchased this punt of him), to be taken in his stead. Here Troth appears in the act of "skulling to birds," with a graphic view of Hurst-the place of his birth— in the back-gronnd. The pretty little punt in the centreground of the frontispiece shows the graceful appearance of this one in a side view, with Troth mopping her out. Both specimens are shown without the "wash-streaks."—

SAM SINGER'S ELEVATING CRUTCH FOR A STANCHION.

A

с

Ε

A, Rest for muzzle.

B, Stanchion for gun.

c, Screw that raises gun, by means of turning round D, which ships into E.

FF, Ends of cross-piece that ship into sides of punt.

G, My suggestion for improvement on A, by which you can fire to the right or left, without having to turn your punt. After all, however, I prefer my hand-level, as this can be regulated while the gunner is lying down.

MY PLAN FOR FIRING TWO POUNDS (OR TWO POUNDS AND A HALF) OF SHOT TO THE BEST ADVANTAGE; AND, AT THE SAME TIME, EASING THE RECOIL OF A SWIVEL-GUN.

As guns to carry a pound of shot at a time are now to be constantly seen on almost every part of the coast, as well as in most of the fen countries, the very few men who formerly had them are now surrounded by rivals; and therefore, in order still to keep this lead, some of them have had recourse to using guns that carry from one pound and a half to two pounds of shot. The recoil, however, from these guns is so tremendous, that most of the men who used them have met with some accident or other, and are therefore giving them up. The desideratum then is to accomplish this with no more recoil, or risk of accidents, than there is with other guns, and thus to have an advantage over the host of ordinary gunners.

The plan that I have adopted is as follows:

A pair of barrels put together so as to fire two circles, each circle partly eclipsed by the other: the one ignited by percussion, and the other by a flint, by which means the trifling difference of the two separate modes of ignition makes such an immense difference in the recoil, as to reduce it to a mere nothing in comparison. The proper way to do this is to put the barrels together, so that the cylinders are parallel to each other; by which of course they become far apart at the muzzles. The eclipsed part of the circles, when the two barrels are fired together, puts into the paper at least a fourth more shot than any one barrel could be made to do; and the enormous weight of metal not only gives additional strength to the double discharge, but also

to either barrel when you fire them separately, which, of course, you have the option of doing; and therefore you are never obliged to discharge an extra pound of shot in waste, as with the huge single guns before alluded to. Moreover, the gun on my plan, cuts two united lanes through the birds, instead of wasting half the shot in the water and in the air, which is the case when the charge is contained in one large circle. In short, this plan forms, as it were, a kind of oval to suit the shape of the object; and thus, at the moment that one part of the birds are being killed by the detonater, the others are just conveniently opening their wings for the flint barrel, though they have not time to rise; because I have here eased the recoil, and got the barrels together so as to do the business point blank.

The mode of easing the recoil is by means of a long loop, worked on, between, and under the barrels; and the swivel-pin going through a slider, on which rests the whole weight of the gun. The space within this loop (about. eight inches), with the exception of an inch and fiveeighths that is taken up by the slider, is filled with a spiral spring, which has a play of rather more than two inches; (and if it had even four or five inches of play, I should think it would be all the better.) Consequently, before any jar can take place to interrupt the point blank delivery of the charge, the shot has left the gun, which is afterwards brought forward again by the reaction of the spring. The loop should be made of horse-nail stubs, and forged on to the barrels. Mine is not so; therefore, if this part fails, the fault lies with the late Mr. Fullerd, and not with me. Suppose this was to give way?— which would be almost impossible, if done as it ought

to be

then you have a ring in the stock (all of which, except a moveable butt, is of cannon metal) with a reserve rope that takes up the recoil immediately.

It was the opinion of a distinguished officer in the navy, before whom I fired this gun several times, that my plan for easing the recoil would answer extremely well for the carronades, or at all events, for the ship's swivels, in Her Majesty's service; and I therefore had made a rough model for the inspection of himself and friends. The only objection at the Admiralty was "the trouble of keeping it clean!" Now I have had my swivel afloat for weeks at a time, in all weathers, and never did anything to it, except occasionally working into it, with a brush, plenty of neat's foot oil. And even now (1853) my little spiral spring, is just as good as when it was first made in 1824.

Here is an outline of the plan in question, which has so amply repaid me for the trouble I have had in overcoming all obstacles, that I shall, under the next head, give directions for it, assisted by explanatory engravings.

Before this gun, &c., was found to answer every purpose, it went through several hands:- Mr. D. Egg; Mr. Fullerd; Mr. Joseph Manton; Mr. Westley Richards; Mr. Parsons of Salisbury; and Mr. Long (all now dead, but Richards!); besides journeymen in my own employ; and, consequently, as so many artificers have been separately occupied in completing it, I may have safely defied any one of them, before I published it, to turn out precisely the same kind of article.

Since the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th editions, I have tried the gun, and punt, in every possible way; and no plan that I had ever before seen was worthy of being compared to this. I shall, THEREFORE, NOW GIVE engrav