54 ^ Book of the Snipe. 



river, like very tall water-cress in appearance, 

 is almost sure to harbour a snipe or two, lying 

 close, as they will in such a place. A big 

 stone thrown with a splash confirms our 

 supposition, and four or five birds spring up, 

 one after the other, with just time to reload 

 between, we think, though probably they 

 would never come to bag without the aid 

 of a good retriever, for they would have 

 fallen into a place where no man could 

 follow. 



Across the stream the ground is of a 

 slightly different character, though it is even 

 more difficult to traverse. Looking ahead, 

 we can see that about a mile farther on the 

 river widens out into a large pool, or rather 

 mere, as it is sufficiently extensive to stretch 

 across our path. The space intervening be- 

 tween us and it is covered with thousands 

 of bushy clumps of long grass, a regular 

 archipelago in a sea of soft deep mud. We 

 shall have to be careful here, for some of the 

 narrow channels between the tussocks are 

 neck -deep. However, the islands are so 



