not only with that of the cannon vii, but with that of the 42-pounder, the sea-service gun which has since been brought into use. Moreover, the last-named gun agrees in weight, if not with the cannon-serpentine and bastard-cannon, at least with the cannon vii.

With respect, also, to the shots severally thrown by the cannon-serpentine, bastard-cannon, cannon-vii, and 42-pound gun; we shall have no difficulty in showing, that they were all of nearly the same weight. For instance, the solid iron shot, that exactly fits a cylinder of seven inches diameter, weighs a trifle over 48 lbs.; but, a small space being usually allowed to intervene between the circumference of the shot and that of the cylinder, denominated, windage, (the expansion of the shot by a white heat, the incrustation of rust from damp, and the foulness of the cylinder after repeated firing, are the three chief considerations to be provided against by the windage,) the shot becomes reduced in diameter, until it weighs about 42 lbs. Or rather, the shot itself being the datum from which the caliber of the gun was originally determined, the latter was made to correspond with the former, allowing the customary windage. The shot of seven inches diameter cannot, as we have shown, weigh more than 48 lbs. and a trifle: therefore, the 53½ lbs. assigned by Sir William Monson,* as the weight of the shot belonging to the cannon-serpentine, whose cylinder did not exceed seven inches, must be erroneous. It may have arisen from a typographical mistake, in substituting a 5 for a 4; and then 43½ lbs. would serve for the weight of a shot calculated for a seven-inch cylinder, only with less than the usual windage. † If any further proof were wanted, to show that the cannon vii and the 42-pounder were the same gun under different denominations, it might be found in the fact, that such first-rates in the list of 1677, as survived the first fifteen years of the new century, appear in the gun establishment of that time, with no other difference in their lowerdeck armament, than the substitution of "42-pounders" for "cannons vii."

The demi-cannon, without doubt, was the 32-pounder of afterdays. The cannon-petro had, in the list of 1677, already changed its name to 24-pounder, and a 12-pounder (probably the ancient basilisk) also appears there. The whole-culverin and demi-culverin became subsequently the 18, and the 9-pounder. The saker, or sacer, both from its caliber and weight, was the 8½ feet, 22 cwt. 6-pounder; as was the light saker, the modern gun of the same nature, measuring six feet, and weighing 17 cwt.

* See Appendix; No. 2.

† Different nations have different proportions for determining the windage. The English, for their long guns, divide the shot into 20, and the bore into 21 parts; the French, into 44 and 45, and, in some of their light pieces, 46 and 47: The English windage, except for carronades, is notoriously too great, and ought to be reduced

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