Messrs. Eley, Brothers, were the first manufacturers who turned their attention to making waterproof copper caps for sporting purposes, commencing it in 1837. The principle is simple, the excellence mainly consisting in the quality of the ingredients used, and their being thoroughly secured from the effects of moisture. They are so constituted that the largest portion of the percussion powder and the weakest part of the waterproof covering which lines the inner surface of the cap, are immediately over the surface of the nipple; consequently, when the blow ignites the percussion powder, the larger portion of the explosion is forced down the nipple, and is of such intensity of heat (especially in platina-lined nipples) that it will ignite the gunpowder some distance up the barrel: in an _eprouvette_ it will do so at four or five inches from the nipple. A miss-fire thus very seldom occurs, as the heat is sure to penetrate to the charge, even when a gun has become foul after a long day’s shooting and the powder cannot pass freely through the chambers to the nipples. It is well known that caps which do not possess these igniting qualities may be fired through gunpowder, and frequently fail to ignite it, from the want of proper attention to the constitution of the fulminate and its mixture. In all cheaply manufactured caps this inferiority is sure to prevail, and the manifold advantages to be derived from the sterling quality of all sporting adjuncts is now fully appreciated by sportsmen generally. “Penny wise and pound foolish” is a proverb more borne in mind than formerly, and the conviction is now general that a good gun only proves to be so when proper attention is paid to the loading in every particular. Good wadding is as essential as good gunpowder: a perfect separation must be maintained between the exploded powder and the shot, or no result can be depended upon; cheap wadding, therefore, according to the above adage, is out of favour. Cartridges of wire, or “universal,” are now so well known as to need no treatise to point out their advantages. A more striking example of the progress of knowledge in properly estimating the value of high-class manufactures cannot be adduced than in the case of Eley, Brothers, who have by unwearied industry in the production of sporting ammunition of the first quality, nearly obtained a monopoly in that department of gunnery. I can safely refer to the Manufacturers to be found in the advertising list as able to supply the sportsman with all requisites, from a gun “to a turnscrew,” and on such terms as will be found to be advantageous to the purchaser. FINIS. LONDON: PRINTED BY SMITH, ELDER AND CO. LITTLE GREEN ARBOUR COURT. Advertisements. WILLIAM GREENER, _GUN MANUFACTURER_, ASTON NEW TOWN, BIRMINGHAM, HIGHEST PRIZE MEDALLIST IN 1851, 1853, AND 1855,