“The opportunities of making an effective hit will be much greater with the torpedo shell than with the ram; it will be easier to point the vessel fairly at the enemy’s broadside when at the range of five hundred yards than to bring the ram in absolute contact with the enemy’s side. The gun-tubes used are very thin (not exceeding three-quarters of an inch in thickness), and may be of sections of any convenient length. The other portions of the supporting truss, reservoirs, etc., are also of comparatively light weight. They could be of large calibres, and the destructive effects producible by large charges of high explosives will doubtless have a demoralizing effect upon the defence.” Upon September 20th of this year a public trial was successfully made with the gun, the target being the condemned coast survey schooner _Silliman_. After firing two shots to verify the range, the gun was loaded with a projectile which was five and a half feet in length, contained fifty-five pounds of explosive gelatine, and was fired under an air pressure of 607 pounds. The torpedo rushed from the muzzle of the tube with a loud report; in thirteen seconds it plunged into the water close under the starboard quarter of the _Silliman_, and exploding almost instantly, threw a great volume of water one hundred and fifty feet into the air. For a moment the schooner was hidden from view, but when the mist cleared away it was found that her main-mast had toppled over the side. At a distance this seemed to be all the damage inflicted, but a closer inspection showed that all the wood-ends on deck had been loosened, that the cabin fittings had been thoroughly shaken up, and that water was running into the hold. Soon afterwards a fourth shot was fired. This landed very close to the starboard side of the vessel, and on explosion seemed to lift the _Silliman_ out of the water. The hull was very badly shattered; the water-tank, which had been firmly fastened to the schooner’s bottom, was blown up through the deck and floated on the wreckage, and the stump of the main-mast was capsized. The bow was held above water by barrel buoys, and the fore-mast, which had heeled over to an angle of forty-five degrees, was sustained by the steel rigging that had become entangled in the pieces of wood floating to windward. MACHINE AND RAPID-FIRE GUNS.