A minute description of the old flint-lock-gun need not be given, as, in general characteristics it does not differ materially from all other muzzle-loaders. The barrel is usually longer than that of the more modern gun; and, in the case of the rifle, the stock (all wood) extends nearly to the muzzle. It is what, in later days, when half-stocks had been invented, was called a full-stock. As already intimated the interior mechanism of the lock differs very little from that of the more modern cap or percussion-lock. On the outside, in place of the cap-hammer is a cock arranged with two lips for holding a flint. The lips are brought together firmly upon the flint by means of a screw which passes down immediately back of it. In the top of the lock-plate, directly in front of the cock, is set the priming-pan; a small iron receptacle made to contain, say the fourth of a teaspoonful of gunpowder. When the lock is in position the butt or open end of the pan comes squarely up against the barrel of the gun where a small hole called the “touch-hole” communicates with the interior, and with the charge, when the gun is loaded. Over the priming-pan a cover fits nicely, lying horizontally when the pan is closed, and turning up at right angles on the edge nearest the cock, and standing erect, a small plate of steel, immediately in front of the flint. This cover, with its vertical plate is called the frizzen. It works on a hinge, and is held into whatever position set, by means of a small spring called the heel spring. When the cock is set in motion by drawing upon the trigger and releasing the check to the mainspring, the flint comes in contact with the steel plate of the frizzen, throwing it back upon its hinge and scraping down its face directly towards the priming-pan. As the frizzen flies back the pan is uncovered, of course, enabling the flint to end its journey directly in the priming powder of the pan. In its scrape over the steel plate of the frizzen it causes many brilliant sparks of fire, which descending with it into the priming sets off the charge. _The Percussion-Lock Gun._—As has already been stated, the immediate successor of the old flint-lock was the percussion or cap-lock. While now far beyond its zenith, it is still the prevailing gun in many portions of the country; especially in out-of-the-way districts South and West. In the oldest make of these guns a small plug of iron is screwed into the barrel at the point where the touch-hole of the flint-lock was located. It is called the cylinder. The end passing into the barrel is drilled to communicate with the powder-bed of the gun, and with a cap-tube, which is screwed into the cylinder, to stand erect near the side of the barrel. In more modern guns the cylinder has been discarded, the tube going directly into the barrel and communicating with the powder-bed.