safety, but because the locks must either be left straining at half-cock, or, if let down and suffered to remain all night, the odds are, that the powder would be jammed into a sort of damp paste, and both barrels would miss. fire. But if you take fresh caps, and prick both the ventholes and the nipple-holes, your gun will generally fire with its usual rapidity.

Detonating powder I have found very liable to miss fire after being long in contact with any salt or damp; such as a strong pressure on the elastic fluid of gunpowder; being all night in a punt in the sea-air; the spray that comes over a boat in sailing, &c.

In a word, although detonating powder may be put in water, and then fired off, yet it frequently misses fire after being long in the damp, and particularly when shooting on salt water. I am inclined to account for it by the following comparison:-Take a piece of biscuit, or (what would answer the proof much better) crisp gingerbread, dip it in water for a short time, and it will nevertheless remain hard enough to crack before it will bend. But, on the other hand, if you lay it in a damp cellar all night, it will not be found crisp in the morning. So it is with detonating powder; by long-continued damp it loses its crispness, and then, of course, will no longer crack, or, in other words, fire by percussion. Here I allude to that in copper caps, in which the fulminating powder is exposed. But in primers, where it is inclosed, air tight, scarcely any wet can affect it.*

* I am indebted to Mr. Wilkinson for the following "wrinkle," -ą "backwoodsman's" dodge for preventing a miss-fire. Stop up the nipple with a solid plug of wood, cut it off smooth at top-load — fire!

One of the recipes for making detonating powder is:

One ounce of oxymuriate of potash,

One-eighth of an ounce of superfine charcoal,

One-sixteenth of an ounce of sulphur.

Mixed with gum-arabic water, and then dried. It should be mixed up in wood, for fear of accident.

Another, and I am told, a far better proportion, is: —
Five of oxymuriate,
Two of sulphur, and

One of charcoal.

I merely give the recipe, in case a sportsman should be in a place where he cannot buy the composition; as I presume that no one in his senses would run the risk of being blown up, in order to make, perhaps indifferently, what he could so cheaply purchase in perfection. But why should I dwell for a moment on this now? when there is scarcely a shop in any country town but can serve you with caps which are at all events equal to home-made

ones.

The foregoing directions are, I trust, sufficient; and I have confined them to the most simple, and, therefore, as yet the best detonating system, which, in the trifling matter of caps, primers, &c. may be suited to the shooter's fancy; but as to all those intricate magazines, movable bodies, and other complicated machinery, which are almost every season springing up from some chimerical artist or other, under an idea that "self-primers" can be made to work with as much certainty in all weathers as in their dry shops - I leave their merits, and the directions about them, to the inventors themselves, or

to the dissertation of some very learned mechanic, as their advantage and utility are far beyond my comprehension.

ANTI-CORROSIVE PERCUSSION POWDER.

On this subject, I cannot do better than embody the remarks of Messrs. Joyce and Co., who have devoted so much time and expense in preparing this composition:

"The percussion system having now entirely superseded that of flint and steel, nothing is required to prove its superiority over all previous methods of ignition; it will, however, be useful to sportsmen, as well as just to ourselves, to point out the great difference that exists in the quality of the primers frequently offered to them, it being nearly impossible to estimate their relative value by mere inspection, the most showy being frequently the worst. A few words, therefore, on the simple mode of testing them, may diminish the number of disappointments and personal injuries entailed by the sale of badly made and worse finished goods. In all manufactured articles there exists a considerable range of prices, varying with the quality of the material employed. The best are invariably the most expensive, and in percussion primers this is particularly the case, from the high duties paid on the materials necessary for the production of anti-corrosive powder, the cost being thus enhanced by twenty times over that of the chlorate composition, used by cap-makers generally, although the term anti-corrosive is used by them to designate goods of every description, from one shilling per thousand upwards. Thirty years since, we proved the fallacy and danger of sportsmen

using this inferior composition, as uncertain in its action, as dangerous in its employment, destructive, in fact, to anything worthy the name of a gun.

"To ascertain whether the priming of a cap is anti-corrosive or otherwise, it is merely requisite to snap off halfa-dozen caps on the gun, and put it aside for twenty-four hours. In the first case, the smoke deposited may be easily wiped off, but if the chlorate composition has been used, a red rust, or oxide of iron, will have been produced, owing to the corrosive nature of the materials used. Should the breech be taken out, the inside will be found to have been acted on as well as the exterior. This must be highly detrimental in every point of view. Again, place one of the caps on a hot cinder: if anti-corrosive, it will explode with a sharp crack, otherwise the detonation will be feeble. Many attempts have been made by persons, unacquainted with chemistry, to overcome these objections by tinfoiling or foil lining, extra varnishing, &c., to what effect it is needless to state.

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Sportsmen should reject caps made of very thick metal; if of good quality, this extra strength is not only useless, but detrimental; caps so made, require a much heavier spring than would be otherwise necessary, rendering it unpleasant in use, and destructive to fine-made locks and nipples. Many other objections may be stated. Should the striking surface of the hammer be indented by use, the nipple a shade too large, or the cap not pushed home, a miss-fire results. Caps of this kind are recommended by those who either use inferior metal, frequently common brass, or puff them as superior on account of the clean cut edge, which such alloys will bear over pure copper and the higher admixtures, which alone are fitted

for the purpose. Springs pulling about twelve pounds are best suited for our anti-corrosive composition.

"Tinfoiling or foil lining has lately been revived, after trial and disapproval thirty years back. The principle is not a good one either in theory or practice; being liable to stop up the nipples, the priming can barely consume itself— anything additional only increases the evil: excessive varnishing to make the caps stand soaking in water, is another absurd idea, a residuum being left, which clogs and gums up the nipples. Caps should stand the weather, wet or dry, but sportsmen do not wet their powder. Caps and nipples of extra length are not good: the communication should be as short as possible, and the nipples, shaped internally like an hour-glass, or doublyinverted cone, otherwise the greater portion of the fire passes down the outside. The worst nipples are those called the platina disc, which no one conversant with the properties of flame could have suggested. As few gunmakers adopt this system, it is needless to show its many imperfections.

"For the purpose of obviating these unnecessary evils, we invented, thirty years since, and have since continued to manufacture, our improved anti-corrosive percussion caps, accompanied with a prospectus, stating the power to which we had adjusted the composition, and which for the ease of the sportsman, as well for our own credit as the manufacturer's, should be kept in mind. We are convinced that the percussion system only requires good work and select materials to surmount every obstacle."