118 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



connection witli a female screw, attached to the fore cross-piece ; and 

 the male screw should be of sufficient leng-th to raise or lower the 

 elevation of the gun from one to two inches. 



As to the position of the chock, or strong'-piece, to which is attached 

 the necessary apparatus for checking- the force of the recoil, it must 

 depend entirely on the means intended to be employed. If the patent 

 spiral recoil-spring- is used, the interior of the punt must be fitted 

 according-ly. But if the strain is to be thrown upon the stem-piece, 

 the builder must take care to fix the same strong enoug-h to receive it. 



The fore-parts of gunning'-punts are sometimes left quite open, and 

 without any scantling- or fore-deck ; but, when so constructed, they 

 require to be rather deeper at the bows than the dimensions stated at 

 page 116. 



The gunning-punt may be built entirely of fir, or the upper streaks 

 which are above water may be of fir, and the lower ones of elm ; if 

 all fir, the boat will be so much the lighter and more buoyant. A 

 gunning-punt should never be built of oak, it is too heavy for the 

 purpose. Many punters express astonishment that Colonel Hawker 

 should have recommended such a material : during the latter days 

 of the colonel's sporting career, however, he appears to have given 

 preference to elm and fir. 



The only objection to clench-built gunning-punts, with round 

 bottoms, is, that in a breeze, the ripples on the water make a trickling 

 noise against the planks of the punt as it is propelled forward ; called 

 in nautical language, "tell tales j"* that is to say, the noise tells the 

 helmsman of a breeze springing up. 



I once heard an objection raised to clench-built punts ; the punter 

 stating that but for the " tell tales," he could have heard the birds 

 feeding, and so discovei-ed their whereabouts ; whereas the noise of 

 the water rippling- against his clench-built punt not only precluded 

 him from so doing, but frightened the birds, and caused them to 

 take wing. But I think the statement scarcely feasible, because, by 

 resting a moment on the paddles, the "tell tales" become silent, and they 

 certainly cannot be heard by birds beyond forty or fifty yards' range. 

 I have never found the smallest inconvenience myself from the " tell 

 tales." A remedy may easil}^ be found, if necessary, by substituting 

 a carvel for a clench-built punt. 



It is desirable that there should be no farther projection of the stem 



* Tills must not be confouuded with " tell-tale," a portable mariucr's compass. • 



