ment of this kind if we are to have practice-grounds at all in such localities. In the twenty-fourth number of Once a Week there is a description and sketch of a somewhat similar screen, by Mr. S. R. Lock, of Regent Street, which in a great measure obviates this objection, and also shows how they may be rendered, by artistic treatment, an ornament instead of a disfigurement to the practice-grounds. There is vacant space sufficient in Hyde Park, as well as in the Regent's, Battersea, and Victoria Parks, for a 400-yards practice-ground if such precautions were adopted; and four such ranges would supply all London with facilities for rifle-practice.

The two great requisites for a rifleman are steadiness and precision; and that these may be acquired by practice at short ranges is proved by the success of the Swiss at Wimbledon, who gained thirteen of the allcomers' prizes, at distances varying from 200 to 900 yards, though hardly one of them had ever fired before in an open range, or at a greater distance than 240 yards.

The Enfield rifle, we are told by one authority,* is the best arm that was ever given to a soldier in any country. The author of the Loop Formation, before quoted, informs us that "the thing called the Enfield rifle" is somewhat less bad than the first one chosen (the Minié), but is still very bad indeed. The truth, as usual, lies between these two extremes; but the first assertion is by far the most correct. The Enfield is surpassed by the Swiss in accuracy at all ranges up to 700 yards, and by the new Austrian rifle (to judge from the published accounts) at all distances; but in the materials and workmanship it is far superior to any other military weapon. In comparison with the military rifle proposed by Mr. Whitworth, it has the advantage of greater lightness, and the cartridge is not so liable to damage in transport, or from damp. In both the Swiss and Austrian weapons, the operation of loading is slower and more difficult. As regards accuracy, the Swiss has twice, and the Whitworth three times, the accuracy of the Enfield at 500 yards.

The principal defect of the Enfield is the shape of the stock, which is curiously arranged so as to be suitable for no man living. The extreme bend or crook-that is, the distance of the butt measured from the straight line which would be produced by prolonging the top surface of the barrel -is 1 inches, which would be suitable for a very short man; but the length of the same stock is suited to a man of medium height; so that a short man can hardly reach the trigger with his finger when in the regulation position, and a tall man has to bring his nose or check-bone into unpleasant contact with the stock before he can look along the barrel at all. This shape of stock is copied from the old "Brown Bess" musket, and the reason, or rather the explanation, given for its being retained was thus stated by a late government inspector of small arms: "It would be impossible to fit every man with a gun-stock to suit his shoulder; and, with sufficient practice, a man may learn to shoot with a

* Observations on Muskets, Rifles, and Projectiles, by Henry Wilkinson.

barrel tied on to a mop-stick." To appreciate the value of this reasoning, it is only necessary to suppose the same principle carried out in the hats or shoes of our soldiers. If every man's foot, for instance, were placed in a regulation pair of shoes, twelve inches long by two inches broad, he would be fitted in much the same manner as he is at present with his rifle-stock.

*

Another fault is the position of the back, or elevating sight, upon the barrel. In aiming at 500 yards, it is eleven inches from the eye. If any one will place the page he is reading at this distance from his eye, and look over it at a more distant object, he will probably see a curious confusion in the outline of the sheet, which appears blurred, and not so sharp and clear as it did at a longer distance. The focal length of the eye, for an ordinary sight, is from twelve to thirteen inches, and if any object is placed within this distance, its outline becomes indistinct and confused, and it is, of course, impossible to see it clearly whilst aiming. If the stock of these rifles were made half an inch more crooked, and the sight were placed two inches further from the eye, nine men out of ten would make better practice with them than they can now do.

We owe, perhaps, an apology to the volunteers, who, we may assume, are the only readers who will have courage to wade through the dry details of this portion of our subject, for proceeding to explain the principles of counting the hits upon the Hythe system, with which, no doubt, they are well acquainted. Nevertheless, for the sake of the general reader who may have incautiously ventured thus far, we will state them as briefly as possible.

In the third class, at all distances up to 300 yards, the bull's-eye, 8 inches in diameter, counts 3 points; the centre, 24 inches in diameter, counts 2 points; and any other part of the target, 4 by 6 feet, counts one point.

After 300 yards bull's-eyes are not counted; the centre, 2 feet in diameter, counts, as before, 2 points; and any other part of the target, 6 by 8 feet, counts one point.

After 600 yards the centre, 3 feet, counts 2 points; but the target is increased to 6 by 12 feet, and any part of it counts one point if hit.

This plan of counting is based upon the known performance of the Enfield rifle. Thus, after 300 yards bull's-eyes are not counted, because, though the 8-inch circle may be touched at such distances, it is impossible to say if the hit is owing to the skill of the marksman or to accident. In fact, the rifle cannot be trusted to hit within eight inches at 400 yards. For a military weapon this is not considered a defect, since whether an enemy be hit in the chin or the forehead will probably make no difference to him. But as rifles exist (viz. the Whitworth, Lancaster, and other small bores) which will put all their shots into a two-feet circle at 400 yards, it is much to be wished that, when these are used, some system of counting should be adopted which would allow a greater accuracy of measurement, since with such a weapon a good and bad shot may

"tie"

each other for a considerable time, though one may hit the centre and the other the edge of the bull's-eye every shot.

It will be noticed, that though the width of the targets is increased for the long distances, the same height (six feet) is always retained. This is assumed to be the height of an infantry soldier; and two feet being taken as the width of a man standing upright, the third class target, therefore, represents the space occupied by two men; the second class, that of four; and the first class, that of six men standing in line. The Hythe average of shooting for 900 yards is 0-75 points; that is, we may say, a marksman is expected to hit the target once in five shots at that distance. This may seem very poor shooting to those who take their notions of rifle-practice from the extraordinary stories that have been circulated. Our American cousins, who have certainly in one respect far surpassed the traditional attribute of the longbow, inform us that when a man " down east" goes out squirrel-shooting, he is very careful to hit the animal so that the bullet enters at one eye and goes out at the other, as the skin would be worthless if it had a bullet-hole in it! Some of the newspaper articles of a year or two back spoke confidently of "picking off a man at a mile" as a very possible feat. Unfortunately it is by no means easy (except on paper) to hit an object the size of six men at half a mile, as the slightest movement will displace the front sight, the whole width of the target. For this reason a very long aim is rarely a successful one; the act of restraining the breath, if long continued, produces an involuntary movement of the muscles of the arm and chest, and when this begins all steadiness is gone.

One of the most extraordinary instances of precision in the present day, is that of an officer of the Grenadier Guards, who has frequently hit a common walking-stick at the distance of 150 yards, and once at the distance of 240 yards. This excels the shooting of "the good yeoman Locksley, called Cleave-the-Wand," in Ivanhoe, though it certainly does not approach that recorded in the pages of Michael Angelo Titmarsh, whose Legend of the Rhine, however, is considered to be of doubtful authenticity.

To the National Rifle Association we owe, in a great degree, the general interest now taken in rifle-shooting in England. The meeting of last year at Wimbledon was a surprise to all; and the excellence of the general arrangements deserves every acknowledgment. The visitors on the first and second days certainly did not know exactly what to do with themselves; but the experiment of the "Aunt Sally" targets provided exactly what was needed to continue the interest, and those who came to stare remained to shoot. If, profiting by this experience, they provide a greater number of open targets for the visitors at the next national meeting, there is no doubt that they will be thronged. We hear rumours also of a visit from one of the American militia regiments; and as the bore of the new American musket is almost exactly the same as that of the Enfield, the competitors will start on equal conditions. The Swiss will no doubt pay us another visit, and may prove as formidable at the long ranges as they did last year at the

shorter distances. We shall probably have some visitors from France and Belgium if peace continue, and altogether we are promised a most exciting competition. Where nerve and skill are the qualities required, we need not fear but Englishmen will always hold a foremost place; and if sufficient facilities are afforded for rifle-practice, especially in the neighbourhood of London and other large towns, we may become in a few years a nation of marksmen like our ancestors, described by Froissart:

"Vîtes et légers de traire tous ensemble, et si épaissement, que nul ne osoit ni pouvoit se mettre en leur trait."

Colonel Bowie and his Knife.

I HAD never had the pleasure of being personally introduced in America to that very great man Colonel Bowie. He was, I believe, a "first-class screamer," as they say in the Southern States; and these States owe a large debt of gratitude to that truly ingenious, truly original inventor, to that Columbus of cutlery, to that facilitator of justifiable homicide. I had always heard the Colonel was what the rowdies or unemployed chivalry of Louisiana and Missouri beautifully denominated, with all the fervour of southern poetry, "a riglar ripper;" but I never thoroughly understood the great debt the human species owed the dead hero, till I had scientifically discussed the invention by which he acquired his immortality in a cutler's shop, or a "store," as the Americans call it, in the city of Richmond in the State of Virginia.

I had spent some days in that pleasant city, so redolent of tobacco, whose brown and spear-shaped leaves tapestry, indeed, every wall and every roof. I had been to the agricultural show-fair, and stared my fill at "bear-baiting, the performing mice from Japan, and the smallest man in the world from Madagascar." I had beheld with, I trust, sufficient admiration the large bulbous sweet potatoes, the rosy "Buffum" apples, the brandy peaches, and the gigantic orange globes of pumpkins.

Tired of these not unsatiating pleasures, and desirous to possess myself of that "young man's best companion" in a wild country, a good bowie-knife, I that day entered about noon the shop of Hiram Peabody, in the High Street of the Virginia City.

I had long since found that nearly every one I met carried, or "toted," as they phrase it, either a bowie-knife or a "five-shooter." I had been assured that in case of a dispute, however trifling (say about the slave question, or the then pending Presidential election), if I travelled without arms, I should be certainly shot down before I could strike a blow. Though having myself a strong opinion that the practice of carrying arms, unless in the time of immediate peril, is unwise in the traveller, as provoking him to rather seek than avoid quarrels, I gave way at last to the repeated urgings of prudence, and, entering Peabody's shop, asked to look at some of his best bowie-knives.

"Take a seat, mister," said Hiram blandly, as if he was going to sell me only cosmetics and soft soap; "and I'll look out the sort of bowie I think you would like to 'tote.' Hannibal, get down that A4 case from the third shelf."

Hannibal, rising from a dime novel which the Syracuse Daily Avalanche insufficiently concealed, rose, and brought me the case of weapons.

Imagine a rather short and broad carving-knife, with a buckhorn