A Memorable Adventure 143 



A MEMORABLE ADVENTURE. 



IT was during the season of 1912 when the events 

 hereafter recorded took place. I was living on the 

 North-east Coast, in the centre of the ' ' cream of 

 wild-fowling." Again, the place was off the beaten 

 track, so to speak, and for miles and miles one could find 

 birds right away to the Firth of Forth on the north to the 

 Tyne — equidistant — on the south. For this foray I 

 took a guide, and we left home at midnight. 



Soon a considerable tract of waste land — covered 

 with wrack-grass — was reached, and then the main 

 estuary came into view — a glassy sheet, extending 

 for miles. If solitude hath charms, as the poet says, 

 we were indeed fortunate, for it reigned supreme. A 

 lonely spot indeed, but the very stillness seemed to nerve 

 us to our sport. Scattered along the entire length 

 were numerous shallow inlets or lagoons of brackish water, 

 a likely haunt of wildfowl. Already, as we noiselessly 

 approached, ducks could be heard quacking loudly in 

 several places, and we lost no time in repairing to a punt 

 which had been placed in readiness for the foray. Away 

 we paddled silently towards the calls. Our destination 

 was a coveted reedy corner of the estuary and here we 

 put the punt aground. Tins was our point of vantage, 

 for in full view we discovered several paddlings of duck 

 on the surface of the silvery-looking stream, whilst 

 others were moving on its edge shovelling with their 

 beaks in the mud. Two or three other big paddlings 

 were on our left and right, but not within gunshot. As 

 a few of these reconnoitred nearer to us I kept the gun 

 at the " ready." I was tempted once or twice to open 

 fire, when suddenly I heard a swish of wings behind me, 

 and a colony numbering probably thirty or forty 

 attempted to alight to within a few yards of the first 

 paddling. Seeing the rare chance thus offered, I fired 

 a rapid right and left into the middle of them at the right 

 moment ere they closed their wings. This was indeed 



