that of 50 or 100 riflemen. Mere volume of fire, however, is useless without control, accuracy, and concentration, and it is here that the machine gun is so vastly superior to the rifle; for amongst 50 men using their rifles there can only be a small percentage of good shots, while even among the good shots unforeseen factors, such as fatigue, bad fire positions, excitement, wrong sighting, failure to see the target, etc., cause a large percentage of the shots to go astray, and make it very difficult to concentrate the fire on any particular position of the enemy.
An object-lesson to illustrate this superiority of the machine gun has been carried out during each course at the South African school of musketry under circumstances most favourable to the rifles. The record of one such test, carried out on September 21st, 1904, between a Maxim gun mounted on Mark III. tripod and 42 rifles (Lee Enfield), was published. The machine gun was worked by two sergeant-instructors, while the 42 rifles were fired by students who were all, at least, 1st Class shots before joining the school, and who for five weeks had been receiving daily instruction in musketry, and had just completed a course of firing both on the ranges (Table B) and in field-firing, and had gone through a course of judging distance. The range was unknown—the number of rounds unlimited, and the rate of fire "rapid." The time was limited to one minute, and the firers were allowed to charge their magazines before
