The barrel is octagonal, and the rifled bore, designed to take a spherical bullet, is 1/2 in.

in diameter.
The hammer can be set to safety on the half-cock by means of a catch behind it.
Another peculiarity of the weapon, one that I have never seen before, is that by pressing on the back of the trigger the ordinary light pull of the piece is so reduced that the merest touch suffices to fire it, thus rendering it hair- triggered in the fullest sense of the word.
It has two flap-sights marked for 150 and 200 yards, in addition to the fixed sight designed for firing at 100 yards.
On the lock are engraved a stag and a doe, the first lying down and the second standing.
Of its sort and period, it is an extraordinarily well-made and handy gun, finished with horn at the end of what is now called the tongue, and with the stock cut away so as to leave a raised cushion against which the cheek of the shooter rests.
What charge it took I do not know, but I should imagine from 2 1/2 to 3 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 L1 15s.