DUCK-SHOOTING. 405 



above his middle, and that if he could endure the cold 

 of six hours' immersion, he might be saved. Unfortu- 

 nately, however, he had not taken into account, the 

 state of the wind, or some other causes, which had not 

 only brought the waters up more rapidly than usual, but 

 would also add to their height. Accordingly, having 

 first felt the chill and deadly sensation of ripple after 

 ripple, now covering his feet, then bathing him knee- 

 deep, and then advancing beyond his waist, he was 

 horror-struck at finding, that instead of receding, it still 

 crept upwards, and had reached his shoulders ; the spray 

 burst over his head; upon another minute's rise or fall 

 of tide his life depended; but still, though he gave him- 

 self up for lost, he firmly grasped his gun-barrel. Tho 

 main land was too far distant to admit of his shouts 

 being heard, and it was equally vain to hope, that any 

 looker-out could descry such a speck upon the waves as 

 the head of a human being. In this awful moment of 

 suspense, on looking downwards^ he thought he saw the 

 uppermost button of his waistcoat beginning to appear. 

 Intensely he watched it, but for some time without any 

 well-founded assurance that he was right. At length, 

 however, hope increased to certainty, as he saw button 

 after button rising slowly into view, an infallible sign 

 that the height of the tide was over, and that it was now 

 upon the ebb. Though chilled with cold, and almost 

 fainting, this welcome prospect raised his spirits, and, 

 acting like a cordial, enabled him to endure the remain- 

 ing hours of his fearful imprironment. This man es- 

 caped; but we well remember a case very .similar, in 

 which the poor sufferer had to endure an equal horror, 

 though not spared to tell the tale. 



Oft 7 the north-west point of the hundred of Wirral, in 

 Cheshire, extends a wide tract of sand forming a danger- 

 our shoal, called Hoylebank, which has proved the grave 

 of many a shipwrecked mariner. To this bank, always 

 dry at low water, the fishermen of the neighbourhood are 

 in the frequent habit of going to collect muscles. One 



