which is more powerful than the barrel; the latter therefore succumbs to it. The resistance of the air is so highly philosophical a question, that I merely touch on its actual bearings on the passage of projectiles to show how the quantity of force is absorbed or expended in relation to the quantity of the gunpowder employed; which, it may be assumed, is a proportion of nearly one-third of the whole, or a quantity independent of that necessary to give velocity to the leaden projectile, to enable it to overcome the still and uniform impeding agent up to the end of its flight. The rapid exit of the bullet from the barrel, with a resisting influence of this weight into the comparatively insignificant one of 15 lbs. to the square inch, will fully explain how it is that a bullet increases in velocity even up to a considerable distance after leaving the muzzle of the gun; and further showing that in all arrangements of truly scientific gunnery, the increasing resistance must be met by a fresh production of explosive fluid over every atom of space in that tube, where it is demonstrable that the resistance is increasing in a geometrical progression as the point of exit is becoming nearer; so that gunnery, unless all the contingencies are provided for, must necessarily remain an imperfect science. Intimately allied to the displacement of the atmosphere is the amount of friction. Gunnery is now rid of the anomaly of being assisted by friction: the detention of the projectile in the tube by artificial friction, to enable more force to be generated, is one of those absurdities pardonable only in bygone days. Science is best consulted by lessening friction; guns of steel, with interiors as fine as the polish in a mirror, are found to shoot best: a rough road is but so much force uselessly absorbed; the experience of the last few years having proved that a range of 1,800 yards cannot be accomplished except with barrels having surfaces as smooth as possible. Rifles, no doubt, are now in use in which, by increasing the degree of spiral, friction is more than doubled, perhaps trebled; but such unscientific constructions are but as one error to counteract another. Unscientifically formed projectiles not having in themselves the principles necessary for true flight, have to receive a counteracting agency in the shape of additional spinning, on an axis coincident to the line of flight, to enable them to range a given distance, with, as it will be perceived, an additional amount of expellant agency; but these cannot be included in the category of scientific gunnery.