The three tubes of this gun (which we described fully in Number 6 of
THE GREAT ROUND WORLD) are fastened together at the breech with a
clasp which holds the whole mechanism of the gun in place.
The climate of the West Indies is so moist that metal rusts in an
amazingly short space of time, and it is difficult to keep anything bright
and polished.
It is supposed by those who understand the gun that, having been
constantly exposed to the moist air, it has rusted, and that the important
clasp has become so rusty that it can no longer be pushed fully home, and
so the gun is not secure.
In their opinion the failure of the dynamite-gun has not been proved; it
may be necessary to make some alterations to fit it for service in swampy
countries, but that as a weapon it is still a success.
* * * * *
Terrible floods are reported from the Mississippi Valley. A section of the
country equal in size to the whole State of Missouri is now under water,
and steamboats are hurrying over what were once farm lands, rescuing the
unfortunate families who have been caught by the floods.
The Mississippi, the largest river on our continent, flows through what is
known as the Gulf Coast Plain.
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