CHAPTER XXXVI 



CONTRASTS IN WILDFOWLING 



II. — Brent Geese and the Blizzard of March, 1886 



Contrasted with the mild months and the blank days 

 and nights described in the last chapter, the following- 

 month of March presented such unexpected and remark- 

 able climatic phenomena, attended by an absolutely 

 unprecedented influx of wildfowl, that the following - may 

 prove an interesting- record. 



As already mentioned, the winter up to the end of 

 February had been unusually irregular and local in its 

 severity, and the quantity of wildfowl on our coast con- 

 siderably less than had been the case for several years. 

 But on the morning of March 1st, we awoke to find a 

 heavy and persistent snowstorm, driving- before a south- 

 easterly g-ale. Throug-hout that day and the following- 

 nig-ht the storm and g-ale continued without intermission. 

 The snow was of that fine dry powdery description which 

 forms the most dang-erous drifts, and the morning- of the 

 2nd found us cut off from communication with the outer 

 world : we had no post, no newspapers, the snow lay piled 

 in hug-e drifts, and — still worse — there were no signs of 

 abatement. The wind veered to the north-east, but the 

 snowfall continued all that day and nig-ht. After nearly 



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