BOAT SHOOTING, UNDER SAIL, OUTSIDE OF
HARBOUR.

(As none, I presume, would go afloat without either having sailors, or being pretty good amateur sailors themselves, it would be needless, as well as difficult to write otherwise than in nautical terms.)

We now take our leave of the harbour, and will have one cruise out of harbour before we proceed to the shooting system in France.

To venture after fowl at sea, you must have a large boat, with good bearings, that will carry plenty of canvas. Rowing after them scarcely ever answers; but when it blows fresh, a fast-sailing boat may often run in upon geese, and sometimes other birds, before they can take wing; and after a coast has been for some time harassed by the gunning punts, I have seen more birds killed under sail from a common boat, than by any other manner of day-shooting. But to do the business well, a stanchiongun must be fixed in the boat, and this, by all means, so contrived as to go back with the recoil, or you run the risk of staving your boat, and, therefore, of being really in danger. Recollect, when you get on the outside of the harbour, an accident is no joke; and you have, as Dr. Johnson observes, but one plank between and eternity.

you

A boat for this work should have plenty of beam, and as little keel as she can well go to windward with, in order to get, at times, within shot of the mud and sands, and also to run through a harbour at ebb of spring tides, without getting aground. You should, therefore, for this sport,

always make choice of a day when the wind is off the land, and a time when the tide is flowing; as you have then no danger of filling your boat with the hollow sea of a lee shore, or running her so fast aground as not to be able to get her off immediately. In following wildfowl under sail, command, as much as you can, a windward berth, in order to bear down on them at pleasure; and if they rise out of shot against wind, as they usually do, luff up directly, and try to head them for a cross shot. As the gun, when on one tack, is in the way of the jib, you must have the man who attends the jib-sheets always in readiness to haul the weather one to windward; but this must be done only just before you want to fire, or you deaden the boat's way. Take care also to let the sheet be under the barrel of the gun, in order that your line of aim may be clear of every thing. In this pursuit, when the more wind sometimes the more sport, never go with less than three good hands; and be careful, in squally weather, not to make the mainsheet too fast, as nine-tenths of the misfortunes that we hear of have occurred from this very circumstance.

I will now conclude here with explaining the apparent inconsistencies of the plate by a dialogue à la Walton. Critic. Why put all your wounded geese swimming, one way?

Author. Because geese, directly they are wounded, always make for the heaviest sea.

Critic. Admit that: but why have you made birds. falling where no gun is fired?

Author. Because, in wildfowl shooting, one-third of the birds that are mortally wounded fly off apparently unhurt, and then drop suddenly from the flock.

Critic. Why is your wounded curlew on his legs, and

the goose unable to dive, while the winged hooper is able to swim?

Author. Because the mud being convex, in some places, the water that flows over it is only about three inches deep there; while it may be nearly a foot deep a few yards farther; and the web-footed bird always makes for the deep, while the wader seeks the shallow water.

Before dismissing the plate too, I should explain, that the man who is taking the passing shot is sketched for Buckle, with his punt: the yawl is with a party, and a swivel-gun, who are bearing down, in obedience to the punter's signal, while the other man is standing on his mud-boards, hallooing and swearing because he also cannot obey the signal (by walking across to intercept the cripples), through fear of leaving two city gentlemen aground; while their poodle dog can no longer contain himself, and on hearing another shot jumps overboard. The Newfoundlander, in the foreground, is sketched from a bitch of mine, that was imported from St. John's.

In describing these subjects, however, I have unfortunately not the means of getting assisted as could be wished, because they are so totally foreign to artists. But for the original plate from which this was taken, I am indebted to the kind and able assistance of the late William Daniell, Esq., R.A.

BOATS USED IN THE SOUTHAMPTON RIVER, AND

ELSEWHERE.

Having spoken of the Hampshire coast-I allude to that part of it all the way from Christchurch bay to Leap, and Calshot; on sailing round which point, we open the

Southampton river, where the mode of shooting again differs. The order of the day here is to have small carvelbuilt boats, and many other miserable contrivances.

The gunners (or rather bird-frighteners) in these parts, scarcely regard any appearance in dress or colour. These men, particularly the Itchen ferrymen, go sailing about all day, firing random shots, and so disturb the coast, that they spoil the sport of those few who really understand, and would assist their families by the pursuit of wildfowl. What few birds they kill are either geese, brought down on the wing, by constantly firing very large mould shot; or cripples which have escaped from other gunners, and got into a sea which their light high-sided boats are able to weather. Farther up this river, towards Millbrook, before it was so incessantly bombarded, they had formerly a more sensible plan; but this was chiefly for getting the curres. It was to set, at low water, lines, with horse-hair loops, in which these birds were caught and drowned, when diving to bite the weeds, and were thus left on the mud by the ebbing tide.

On other parts of the coast of England, I have observed the boats are more or less on the construction of those already mentioned. But when in Scotland, I could procure nothing small enough to answer the purpose in any way. This, however, was some years ago. There (on the Clyde, below Dumbarton) the sport would have been excellent, and particularly at the bernacles; but since I was there, I hear that this, like all other places, is nothing like what it was in former times. The decked punts here recommended, have superseded all others on almost every coast.

CRIPPLE-NET.

Of all the little "wrinkles" that ever occurred to me for securing wounded birds in a sea, one of the best is a cripple-net, precisely similar to the landing-net of an angler. The hoop of iron (or, what is far better, 4-inch hard-drawn copper wire) should be nearly 2 feet in diameter, and made as light as possible, except just where it screws into the socket; as there comes all the lever or strain. The pole should be made with light Norway deal, and about 5 or 6 feet long. You then stow your net, on the bottom boards, under the skin that you sit on, and lay the pole alongside the other gear; so that you have no encumbrance whatever, even in the smallest punt. The meshes should be just sufficient to hold a teal, and you may have the net of silk. But I'll warrant that even twine will not hold wet enough to make any thing uncomfortable. I could write a sheet full to explain the many advantages of this simple contrivance, but my doing so would be a waste of time. Let any gunner, therefore, and particularly if he has another "hand" in the punt, only try the thing, and I think he'll never, by choice, "put off" again without How many hundreds of fowl would it have saved for hard-working gunners, instead of their falling a prey to gulls and Itchen ferrymen! The whole cost of my cripple-net (a rough one made for trial) was 2s. 6d. The first time of using it, I caught up as many wigeon as would have sold for 12 shillings, where I had not time to load the "cripple-stopper," and where, by once "putting about," we should have let all the birds get into a rolling surf before we could have "fetched" them again. Every

one.