|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: 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.]
Marie |
