248 Art of Travel.
weight; charcoal, 3 parts. Or, in other words, of nitre, 16 parts; charcoal 7 parts; sulphur, 4 parts. It must not be forgotten, that when rockets are charged with the composition, a hollow tube must be left down their middle.
Blue Fire.-4 parts gunpowder meal ; 2 parts nitre ; 3 parts sulphur; 3 parts zinc.
Bengal Fire.-7 parts nitre ; 2 parts sulphur ; 1 part antimony.
Bullets.-Sportsmen, fresh from England, and acknowledged as good shots at home, begin by shooting vilely with balls at large game. They must not be discouraged at what is a general rule, but be satisfied that they will soon do themselves justice.
Alloy.-Common bullets of lead, whether round or conical, are far inferior to those of hard alloy ; for the latter penetrate much more deeply, and break bones, instead of flattening against them. A mixture of very little tin, or pewter (which is lead and tin), with lead, hardens it : we read of sportsmen melting up their spoons and dishes for this purpose. A little quicksilver has the same effect. Sir Samuel Baker, who is one of the most experienced of sportsmen both in Ceylon and in Africa, latterly used a mixture of nine-tenths lead and onetenth quicksilver for his bullets. He says, " This is superior to all [other) mixtures for that pm•pose, as it combines hardness with extra weight; the lead must be melted in a pot by itself to a red heat, and the proportion of quicksilver must be added a ladleful at a time, and stirred quickly with a piece of iron just in sufficient quantity to make three or four bullets. If the quicksilver is subjected to red heat in the large leadpot, it will evaporate." Proper alloy, or spelter, had best be ordered at a gun-maker's shop, and taken from England instead of lead : different alloys of spelter vary considerably in their degree of hardness, and therefore more than one specimen should be tried.
Shaps of Bullets.-Round iron bullets are worthless, except at very close quarters, on account of the lightness of the metal for the resistance of the air checks their force extremely. Whether elongated iron bullets would succeed, remains to be
-
www.fastio.com
