CHAPTER XL. 



THE SHOOTING-YACHT. 



-" Aye ! at set of sun 



Tlie breeze will freslien when tlie day is done. 

 My corslet — cloak — one Lour, and we are gone ! " 



Byron. 



The shooting--yaclit is^ comparatively speaking-, a modem invention 

 connected with the captivating' diversion of wild-fowling-. It affords 

 a pleasant means of pursuing* the sport, thoiigh by far the most 

 costly. The pleasures connected with it are healthy and invigorating' 

 to those whose constitution enables them to bear the cold without 

 inconvenience. And cold enough it is sometimes. I have found my- 

 self eng-ag-ed heart and soul in the sport, when every dash of spray 

 congealed into ice before it coidd be wiped from the deck with the 

 mop. But that is the best time of all for pursuing- the sport of wild- 

 fowl shooting-, because the weather is then so severe that it makes 

 the birds tamer, and affords the sailing- sportsman splendid amuse- 

 ment. 



During the time Colonel Hawker wrote, the shooting-yacht was 

 little used, but a large open sailing-boat, bearing- no proportion, and 

 claiming- no place beside the splendid specimens of yachting architec- 

 ture lately brought out for the purpose. 



Many yachters, at the present day, who take their pleasure-cruises 

 in summer, dismantle their yachts of the sunny-sky canvas as soon 

 as the season is over, and substitute smaller sails, of stouter material ; 

 fit a chock, swivel, and recoiling apparatus on the bows of the yacht; 

 and thus convert their summer cruiser into a winter sporting vessel. 

 Others, whose yachts are too large for the })urpose, keep a smaller, 

 which takes up the moorings of the larger as soon as the summer- 

 cruisinc" ceases. 



