ithout
the ramrod, which is now missing, it weighs only 5 lbs. 3
3/4 oz. The barrel is octagonal, and the rifled bore,
designed to take a spherical bullet, is 1/2 in. in diameter.
The hammer can be set to safety on the half-cock by means of
a catch behind it.

Another peculiarity of the weapon, one that I have never
seen before, is that by pressing on the back of the trigger
the ordinary light pull of the piece is so reduced that the
merest touch suffices to fire it, thus rendering it hair-
triggered in the fullest sense of the word.

It has two flap-sights marked for 150 and 200 yards, in
addition to the fixed sight designed for firing at 100
yards.

On the lock are engraved a stag and a doe, the first lying
down and the second standing.

Of its sort and period, it is an extraordinarily well-made
and handy gun, finished with horn at the end of what is now
called the tongue, and with the stock cut away so as to
leave a raised cushion against which the cheek of the
shooter rests.

What charge it took I do not know, but I should imagine from
2 1/2 to 3 drachms of powder. It is easy to understand that
in the hands of Allan Quatermain this weapon, obsolete as it
is to-day, was capable of great things within the limits of
its range, and that the faith he put in it at the trial of
skill at the Groote Kloof, and afterwards in the fearful
ordeal of the shooting of the vultures on the wing, upon the
Mount of Slaughter, when the lives of many hung upon his
marksmanship, was well justified. This, indeed, is shown by
the results in both cases.

In writing of this rifle, Messrs. Purdey informed me that
copper percussion caps were experimented with by Colonel
Forsyth in 1820, and that their firm sold them in 1824, at a
cost of L1 15s. per 1,000, although their use did not become
general until some years later.--THE EDITOR.]

That was about six months earlier than the time of which I write, and
during those months I had often used this rifle for the shooting of
game, such as blesbuck and also of bustards. I found it to be a weapon
of the most extraordinary accuracy up to a range of about two hundred
yards, though when I rode off in that desperate hurry for Maraisfontein
I did not take it with me because it was a single barrel and too small
in the bore