, of which forty-four thousand pounds would be the share
of the thirteen-inch guns, thirty thousand pounds the share of the
eight-inch, six thousand pounds of the six-inch, and thirty-six
hundred pounds of the others. The total weight of the "Massachusetts'"
broadside is 5,724 pounds, and of her head or astern fire 3,434
pounds.

Another of the monitors, the "Monadnock," was added to the navy in
1896. She was launched in 1883, and was then practically left alone
until the acts of 1885, 1886, and 1887 provided for her completion.
She is now a formidable vessel, with heavy guns which can be made to
bear on a point a small boat's length from the ship's side, or can
bombard at a distance of six miles.

While the successive Secretaries of the Navy, during the last fourteen
years, have been chiefly active in increasing the number of
ships-of-war, they have not altogether neglected defences on the
coast. Some of the larger seacoast cities have succeeded in obtaining
a part of the heavy gun and mortar batteries that would be necessary
in repelling attacks without the aid of battle-ships. The cities of
New York and San Francisco have now mounted and ready for action
powerful pneumatic dynamite gun batteries, the most destructive
engines of war in existence. Each of these guns is capable of hurling
a projectile carrying five hundred pounds of the most powerful
explosive known to man, and is able to destroy the strongest
iron-clad. In the naval battle of Sinope in the Crimean War, a shell
designed to explode on striking the object was used for the first
time. When the high explosives, such as dynamite and gun-cotton,
appeared, the idea suggested itself that they might be used in the
shells with vastly greater effect than gunpowder, which had been
employed. The objection, however was that these explosives are so
sensitive that there was great danger of their exploding at the outset
of the journey from the sudden shock of being hurled from the ordinary
high-power guns and mortars. Captain Zalinski, of the United States
Artillery, suggested a method of gun construction by which the shells
could be projected by a steady pressure of compressed air instead of
by the sudden force of powder gases. This system has been steadily
improved until the pneumatic dynamite gun now works perfectly and is a
marvel of destructiveness. The United States possesses six and Great
Britain one of the seven dynamite guns that have thus far been
manufactu