274 THE DOCTOR IN KEQUEST. 



strand immediately levelled his piece, aud was in the act 

 of discharging it ; on observing which, the individual in 

 the nearest punt sang out lustily, with an unnameable 

 expletive: 'Don't you see I'tn in the line of fire!' But 

 this warning availed not, for an instant afterwards he 

 received several sliots in the face. When, however, he 

 had in degree recovered from the effects of the unwel- 

 come salute, he raised his gun to his cheek, which was 

 streaming Avith blood, and cried out to the misdoer in a 

 stentorian voice : ' I'll cure thee of shooting at people.' 

 Seeing that the wounded man w^as in earnest, the unlucky 

 wight who had caused the mischief ran off at his best 

 pace, but had only proceeded a short distance when several 

 leaden pellets were lodged in his heels. The smarting of the 

 wound at once ' brought him up,' and caused him forth- 

 with to deposit the most fleshy part of his person in the 

 mud, where he drew his knees up to his chin, and with 

 both hands seized hold of the soles of his feet. To the 

 great amusement of the whole company, there he sat like 

 a huge baboon, mumbling between his teeth that a 

 bastinado was not a fit punishment for a Christian man, 

 aud shouting loudly for a doctor, to Avliom, in fact, he was 

 shortly afterwards sent. It was soon ascertained, however, 

 that his boots had suffered more than his legs, and that the 

 services of a shoemaker were more required than those 

 of a follower of Esculapius." 



Though multitudes of ducks, &c., are slaughtered whilst 

 in the flapper state, yet many others are shot when fully 

 fledged, and in a sportsmanlike way, on their rising from 

 the reed-beds. And admirable duck-shooting, in certain 

 localities at least, is obtainable in almost all parts of 

 both Sweden and Norway ; but the best, probably, in 

 Norrland, where, Nordholm tells us, " there is more 

 wild fowl than in the rest of the Peninsula together ; " 

 and to judge from what I myself saw whilst there, 



