ly. I
am uncertain whether our other 12-pounders used mostly electric or
percussion, but I think on the whole, percussion; and, speaking for
myself, I certainly did so after experiencing the disappointments
which miss-fires often gave one, when trying to get in a quick shot,
say from the line of march, with the electric gear. These "miss-fires"
are, moreover, often unavoidable under active service conditions, such
as we had with our semi-mobile guns. The guns and connections get
sometimes an inch thick in mud or dust and require time to clean, when
one has no time to spare: the use of percussion tubes avoids all this.

Before we leave the subject of guns the following description of the
French 3" Creusot gun by the _Revue d'Artillerie_ will be of interest,
viz.:--

_South Africa._--The Field Artillery of the Boers consists for
the most part of Creusot 3" rapid-firing guns made after the 1895
model. These guns were purchased by the South African Republic
during the year 1896.... The gun, which is constructed of forged
and tempered steel, has a 3" bore. Its total length is 8 feet and
its weight is 726 pounds. The body of the gun consists of three
elements:--1. A tube in which the breech piece is fixed. 2. A
sleeve covering the tube for a length of 3 feet 6 inches. 3. A
chase hoop. The chamber is provided with twenty-four grooves of
variable pitch which have a final inclination of 8 deg..

The system of breech closing is that of the interrupted screw,
which presents four sectors, two of them threaded and two plain,
so that the breech is opened or closed by a quarter revolution of
the screw. The mechanism is of the Schneider system, patented in
1895, and has the advantage of allowing the opening or closing of
the breech to be effected by the simple motion of a lever from
right to left, or _vice versa_.

The gun is fired by means of an automatically-cocked percussion
apparatus. A safety device prevents any shots from being fired
until after the breech is closed.

The carriage is provided with a hydraulic recoil-cylinder fitted
with a spring return. It is also furnished with a "spade," which
is placed under the stock at an equal distance from the trail and
the axle, and which is of the model that General Engelhardt has
adopted for the Russian Artillery.

During a march this spade is turned b