Gold Hill Daily News

Wonderful Improvement in Fire-Arms.—"That's a pretty solid piece of oak," said General Loggett, the Commissioner of Pensions, picking up a stick sixteen inches thick, through which there was a small and remarkably clean cut hole. "That hole was made by a rifle ball, and after making the hole as you see it here, the small ball went through eight pine planks, in all nine inches thick. The oak, you see, has a knot; when the ball came to that it was turned about ten degrees from a straight line, and thence went straight on and through the pine." This illustrates one of the most recent and, at the same time, most wonderful improvements in firearms. The rifle from which the ball having such wonderful force was fired, is supplied with extra chambers ranged along the barrel, which are loaded and explode one after another, as the ball, having received its first impulse, passes them. It is estimated that a ball shot from one of these rifles would go at least 2 1/2 miles, if it met with no obstacles. Experiments with heavy artillery operating upon this principle have been made in England, and the results indicate a probability of extensive changes in the construction of large guns.