of force employed in making the stroke. Some experts
are able to fill all the holes at one essay, placing the coloured
balls in the 8 and 7 at the first stroke, and then playing direct at
the cups or at the cushion, till all the balls are holed. At the
French Game a hundred or more canons at a break is by no means unusual.

2582. Billiards.

This well-known game of skill is played on a rectangular table with
three ivory balls,--white, spot-white, and red; the object being to
drive one or other of them into either of the six pockets, and to
strike one ball against the two others. The first stroke is known as a
hazard, and the second as a canon. The instrument for striking at the
ball, is a long tapering stick called a cue; and the game is scored by
hazards, canons, misses, and forfeitures. The ball struck with the
cue is known as the player's ball; the ball played as the object ball.
A ball struck into a pocket, is a winning hazard; the player's ball
falling into a pocket after contact with the white or red, is a losing
hazard. Three principal games are played on the billiard table--the
English game, or Billiards, Pyramids, and Pool.

2583. English Billiards.

English Billiards,--the best of all the games,--is usually played 50
or 100 up. The points are thus reckoned--three for each red hazard,
two for each white hazard, and two for each canon. A coup--that is
running in a pocket, or off the table without striking a ball--is a
forfeiture of three points,--a miss gives one point to the adversary.
The game commences by stringing for lead and choice of balls. The red
ball is placed on the spot at the top of the table, and the first
player either strikes at it, or gives a miss. Every time the red ball
is pocketed, it is replaced on the spot. He who makes a hazard or
canon goes on playing till he fails to score. Then the other goes on,
and so they play alternately till one or other completes the required
number of points, and wins the game.

2584. Pyramids.

Pyramids is a game played by two persons, or by four in sides, two
against two. Fifteen balls are placed close together in the form of a
triangle or pyramid, with the apex towards the player, thus:

o o o o o
o o o o
o o o
o o
o

The centre of the apex ball covers the second or pyramid spot; and the
first player strikes at the mass with