Referring to the Wesson muzzle-loading rifle, Mr. Chapman says that the barrel is made of cast steel, not highly carbonized, but thoroughly annealed in an air-tight oven. The length of the barrel is two feet eight inches when the loading muzzle is off. Outside, the barrel tapers a little from breech to muzzle, the difference in diameter being one fourth of an inch. The barrel is not furnished with a rib, except it be that the short tube at the breech can be called a rib, the peculiarity of stocking doing away with the necessity for a regular rib. The gun has a patent breech, which is made of iron case-hardened. It is joined to the break-off by the old-fashioned hook, with the addition of a half-lap joint, secured by a square-headed screw. Such a mode of fastening the barrel destroys the necessity for wood forward of the breech, and gives a peculiarly elegant and striking appearance to the arm. The loading-muzzle is put on by means of four steel wire pins about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and three-eighths long, and the holes for these pins are located as near the outside as possible. The grooves of this rifle are cut with a twist, which turns the bullet once in three feet six inches. There are six grooves, and the spaces between them are left entirely square to the interior surface, presenting a kind of dove-tail appearance. The grooves are not quite so wide as the spaces between them. The breech is furnished with a vent or breathing nipple, about the diameter of a common pin, and bushed with platinum. The lock has back-action, furnished with a single set. The stock is of black walnut, made as straight as possible. It is furnished with a patch box, and also a small box to contain a wiper, which can be attached to the end of the ramrod. A globe sight is fixed into the stock, just behind the break-off, while a bead sight holds position at the muzzle-end of the barrel. The weight of the gun complete is ten pounds. Of course it will be clearly understood that this description is not offered as of the best muzzle-loading rifle made, but simply because it happened to be convenient to make. There are, doubtless, other guns equally as good, and a preference of one over the other, in all probability, would have to be born of circumstances, as something peculiar in the tastes or requirements of the person by whom the gun was to be used, or in the particular line of use to which it was to be applied. _The Breech-loading Shot Gun._—Gloan tells us that, in judging the quality of a breech-loader, there are other things to be taken into consideration besides the mere shooting of the gun. First among these is its safety relative to the person using it. There is more machinery and complication about it than there is about the muzzle-loader, and to that extent, if not made upon sound principles, and perfectly well made, it is more dangerous, to say nothing of being less durable.