and required nearly twice the amount of powder
to drive it from the cannon, yet it went no
deeper than Mr. Whitworth's missile. It is
true that the hole made by the Armstrong shell
was larger, though not deeper, than that made
by Mr. Whitworth's; but it is a question whether
this advantage is not more than compensated, for
naval purposes, by the superior lightness of Mr.
Whitworth's piece. If Mr. Whitworth did what
he did with a 150 Ib. shell and 25 Ib. of powder,
the inference is that he could do a great deal
more with a shell weighing—as Sir William
Armstrong's weighed—290 Ib., and discharged— as
Sir William's was discharged—by no less than
45 Ib. of powder. Nor must we fail to take into
consideration another very important point in
favour of Mr.Whitworth's gun—the greater ease,
namely, with which it may be loaded. In naval
warfare, " peppering away" is the great strength
of a side, and the gun which can " pepper" the
enemy the greatest number of times in the
course of a couple of minutes, has, in that alone,
an advantage over other guns, of no trifling
amount. Now, Mr. Whitworth's cannon, which
drove its shell into the target to the same depth
as Sir William Armstrong's, is much more easily
and quickly loaded than Sir William's, and is
some three or four tons lighter. It was very
unfortunate, that in consequence of the
existence of a flaw in the centre steel tube of Mr.
Whitworth's gun, it was only deemed expedient
to fire it once, and no further experiments could
be made with it.

There is always something impressive in size.
When a great number of objects, all of the same
class, solicit one's attention, the largest of them
is likely to have the greatest attraction for the
greatest number of people. A gun nearly
eighteen feet long, and about four feet in
diameter at the breech, is a most terrible-looking
engine; and I have no doubt that, on the
occasion of which I am treating, the discharge
of this piece of artillery was looked for by many
as the great event of the day. When the bugle
sounded the note of preparation, and the men,
who had been busy preparing this enormous
cannon to do its work of destruction, began to
run away from it in all directions, seeking safety
in flight and concealment, and so the great
monster was left alone and dominant over the
other guns which stood about it, there was
something almost awful in its aspect. It was
not entirely deserted, though, even yet, for one
solitary individual was perched upon its breech,
adjusting, it is to be supposed, the machinery
connected with its firing, and making the final
preparations. And small, indeed, the man
looked, crawling about upon that perilous
eminence; and dangerous enough his position
seemed, when one reflected what was inside the
monster on which he was perched, and how
fraught with destruction it was. But soon
even this solitary personage dismounted from
his position, and when he had found for
himself some secure asylum, there was but a short
pause before the signal was given, and in the
midst of a roaring, rushing sound, a perfect
hail of solid fragments filled the air, descending
with a terrific clatter on the earth, and making
us feel how wise was the precaution which had
sent us all under cover of a roof. At that same
moment of its discharge, the cannon, with a
furious recoil, threw up its muzzle to the sky.
"Dixi, I have spoken," it seemed to say; and
then it flung its mouth up to the heavens for
air.

It had spoken, however, this time to little
purpose. That shower of solid objects which
had seemed to darken the mouth of our retreat
was raised by the contact of the shot with the
earthwork near the target, after disturbing
which the huge missile went on its way with
unimpaired speed, and, having missed the target,
and finding nothing further in its way, it tore
away high over the shingle on the shore and out
to sea, and there dropped, very much too near
the bows of a certain brig which was passing at
the time, and which very narrowly missed
having its career brought to a glorious
termination.

This gun spoke to better purpose later in the
day, when, having taken, for the strengthening of
its constitution, a powder weighing no less than
50 Ib., and a steel pill of 330 Ib. weight, it
managed to make a hole, ten inches deep, in the
side of the ship: striking it, indeed, with such
force that the enormous projectile rebounded
after the contact to a distance of thirty yards,
where it lay, crushed out of shape, like a
pugilist's fist, which suffers by the blows which he
himself has inflicted; and still, after every
discharge, the gun recoiled as it had done at first,
and threw its muzzle upward in a sort of
triumph.

There was nothing more remarkable in
connexion with the whole of this remarkable scene,
than the great precautions taken to prevent any
one from approaching the guns about the time
when they were to be fired. This struck one
rather forcibly, remembering the very close quarters
at which the artilleryman or the gunner
must find himself with the cannon when actually
engaged in hard service either on land or at
sea. In either case, it is impossible not to
see that the operations would be considerably
retarded if it were necessary for every one who
had anything to do with the working of the
gun, and especially for the individual firing it,
to put something like the eighth of a mile
between himself and the piece before it went off.
We have seen how these same precautions were
observed among the lookers-on at these experiments;
let us now turn for a moment in another
direction.

The commandant's hut is a strongly-built
shed immediately behind a powerful earthwork
made in the form of a battery. In front of the
hut is a flagstaff. As soon as all things are
in readiness, and all the men removed out of
harm's way, and stowed away into all sorts of
strange nooks and corners where some shelter
is afforded, the flag is run up to intimate to
all whom it may concern that the firing is going
to begin. This done, the commandant, who has