Yet—massed together with all the prodigality of Nature’s unsparing hand—they crown the everlasting hills; or, falling in avalanche and glacier, overwhelm the stoutest works of man; or, in vast islands of floating ice, show themselves to be Of force to withstand, year upon year, the shock Of cataract seas that snap the three-decker’s oaken spine. (From the _Daily News_, March 11, 1869.) _LONG SHOTS._ Our artillerists have paid more attention of late years to the destructive properties of various forms of cannon than to the question of range. It was different when first the rifling of cannon was under discussion. Then the subject which was most attentively considered (after accuracy of fire) was the range which might possibly be attained by various improvements in the structure of rifled cannon. Many of my readers will remember how, soon after the construction of Armstrong guns had been commenced in the Government factories, a story was spread abroad of the wonderful practice which had been made with this gun at a range of seven miles. At that tremendous range, a shot had been fired into the middle of a flock of geese, according to one version of the story; but this was presently improved upon, and we were told that a bird had been singled out of the flock by the artillerists and successfully ‘potted.’ Many believed this little narrative; though some few, influenced perhaps by the consideration that a flock of geese would not be visible at a distance of seven miles, were obstinately incredulous. Presently it turned out that the Armstrong gun was incapable of throwing a shot to a distance of seven miles; so that a certain air of improbability has since attached to the narrative. Still there were not wanting those who referred to ‘Queen Anne’s pocket-pistol’—the cannon which was able to throw shot across the Straits of Dover; and in the fulness of their faith in that mythical piece of ordnance, they refused to believe that the skill of modern artillerists was unequal to the construction of cannon even more effective.