CONTRASTS IN WILDFOWLIXG 427 



less leaving during- the night. On the 25th and 26th the 

 remainder almost all took their departure, and of the tens 

 of thousands which arrived here on March 2nd, hardly 

 two score remained on the 31st. The geese when last 

 seen were steering due east, and very high, mounting- 

 higher in the air as they went. 



The wigeon withdrew during the latter part of the 

 month, and by the 25th were nearly all gone. Swans 

 occurred three times in March. In addition to those 

 already mentioned as passing on the 3rd, five others 

 arrived on the 27th, and remained several days, and on 

 the 31st, six more passed to the northwards. These 

 three occurrences were all that had been seen during the 

 winter. It will thus be observed that, after one of the 

 worst fowling-winters on record, abundant sport was 

 obtainable (with exclusively foreign fowl) in March. 



Later in the year, by a curious coincidence, I had 

 another opportunity of observing the movements of the 

 brent geese. Having left England for Norway on May 

 25th, early on the morning of the 27th, the Norway coast 

 in sight, distant fifteen miles, we saw far astern an 

 immense body of geese on the wing, looking at the distance 

 like a small cloud over the sea. They rapidly overhauled 

 us, though our steamer was making eleven knots under 

 steam and canvas, and passed outside her, heading due 

 North. There were many thousands of them in long 

 straggling skeins, and at the speed they were travelling 

 (say thirty or forty knots) would reach Spitsbergen in 

 about forty-eight hours — that is on one of the last days 

 of May — exactly the date when they are due there ! 



The two months which had elapsed since leaving our 

 British coasts on March 26th, the geese had evidently 

 spent in North-Continental waters or Danish Sounds. 



