Ill 



The sands and mud-flats of the Tees estuary and the adjoining 

 marshes have always been the resort of vast numbers of wild 

 fowl, and many very rare birds have at various times been 

 procured here ; their numbers have, however, greatly decreased 

 of late years, owing to the increase of shipping and boating on 

 the river, the reclamation works, and the yearly increasing 

 number of shooters, who take advantage of the reclamation 

 embankments which have been made to intersect the mud- flats, 

 or, as they are locally called, 'slems.' As these banks are formed 

 of slag from the ironworks, small huts are easily formed in them, 

 where a shooter can sit completely concealed, and wait the rising 

 of the tide, when the Waders are compelled to leave and seek 

 refuge in the adjoining marshes, and, of course, have to cross 

 the banks ; at times great numbers are thus shot, both of Waders 

 and Ducks At various places on the mud-flats may be observed 

 the tops of casks, protruding out of the mud eight or nine inches. 

 These have been put down by wild-fowlers to conceal themselves 

 in (before the slag banks were built). They had to be approached 

 on mud-pattens, or flat pieces of wood fixed to the boots, to 

 prevent sinking into the mud. The casks had to be baled out 

 every time they were used, not a very pleasant proceeding on a 

 frosty day in winter ; nor would they form a very comfortable 

 waiting place when they were baled out. Curious experiences 

 are related by some old wild -fowlers, who in former years were 

 in the habit of using these casks. I have heard of one man who, 

 after baling out his cask, was in the act of lowering himself into 

 it when he accidently caught the trigger of his gun with his foot, 

 and had his hand shattered. The wild-fowlers frequenting 

 the Tees at the present time are chiefly working men from 

 Middlesbrough, and the guns they carry are a study in them- 

 selves, every conceivable kind of weapon being brought into 

 requisition, from tlie modern breech-loader to adaptations of the 

 flint and steel guns of our forefathers ; the greater number are 

 single muzzle-loaders. Some have old duck guns, such as were 

 formerly used in the fen districts, fully six feet long over the 

 stock, and almost as heavy as a punt gun. Some of these guns 

 will kill at very long distances. One man I have met carries a 

 double-barrelled 'Joe Manton,' which Las been a very expensive 

 gun in its day, and formerly belonged to Wynyard. Punt guns 

 are also still used on the river, and, I understand, were much 

 more frequently so formerly, when the river was periodically 

 visited by wild-fowlers from Lincolnshire and other places, who 

 usually took up their quarters on the river for some time. 



