CONTRASTS IN WILDFOWLING 421 



a friend who left Copenhagen on the 28th luckily got 

 across in the last steamer which could leave Korsoer for 

 Kiel — was intensified in March ; and on the 2nd (the 

 very day of the arrival of the geese here), the following 

 telegram was despatched by Lloyd's agent at Copenhagen : 

 "The frost continues with increased strength, and the 

 navigation is almost entirely stopped between the Scaw 

 and this port. Powerful steamers have succeeded in 

 forcing their passage ; but seven or eight others are 

 reported to be fast in the ice." Later telegrams reported 

 that "the Cattegatt is full of ice, and navigation most 

 dangerous. All the Baltic and Danish ports are closed, 

 and the frost still continues." In short, the whole of 

 the sounds and harbours of the northern coast of the 

 continent were frozen up by the early days of March, 

 and the "grand army" of geese which usually winter 

 there, at once crossed over to seek refuge on our side of 

 the North Sea. 



On March 8th, the North line having been dug out, 

 and several embedded trains (conveying, among others, 

 a duke and a bishop who had had to dine on red- 

 herrings toasted at the engine-furnace ! ) released from 

 the snow drifts, I went down to my fowling-quarters, 

 and was afloat next morning by daybreak. This also 

 was a bitterly cold day, with 16 of frost, and a cutting 

 wind off the snow-clad hills. The rounded decks of 

 the gunboat were soon encased in a sheet of ice, and 

 the sea-water froze into icicles along the barrel of the 

 punt-gun and elevator. But, cruel and biting as was 

 the cold, the marvellous spectacles of bird-life witnessed 

 that day proved ample compensation. Words fail to 

 convey an adequate idea of the numbers of brent geese, 

 and of the effects produced by the disciplined evolu- 



