drachms of powder. It is easy to understand that in the hands of Allan
Quatermain this weapon, obsolete as it is to-day, was capable of great
things within the limits of its range, and that the faith he put in it
at the trial of skill at the Groote Kloof, and afterwards in the fearful
ordeal of the shooting of the vultures on the wing, upon the Mount of
Slaughter, when the lives of many hung upon his marksmanship, was well
justified. This, indeed, is shown by the results in both cases.

In writing of this rifle, Messrs. Purdey informed me that copper
percussion caps were experimented with by Colonel Forsyth in 1820, and
that their firm sold them in 1824, at a cost of #1 15s. per 1,000,
although their use did not become general until some years later.--THE
EDITOR.]

That was about six months earlier than the time of which I write, and
during those months I had often used this rifle for the shooting of
game, such as blesbuck and also of bustards. I found it to be a weapon
of the most extraordinary accuracy up to a range of about two hundred
yards, though when I rode off in that desperate hurry for Maraisfontein
I did not take it with me because it was a single barrel and too small
in the bore to load with loopers at a pinch. Still, in challenging
Pereira, it was this gun and no other that I determined to use; indeed,
had I not owned it I do not think that I should have ventured on the
match.

As it happened, Mr. Smyth had left me with the rifle a large supply of
specially cast bullets and of the new percussion caps, to say nothing of
some very fine imported powder. Therefore, having ammunition in plenty,
I set to work to practise. Seating myself upon a chair in a deep kloof
near the station, across which rock pigeons and turtle doves were wont