406 DUCK-SHOOTING. 



evening, a party having ventured as usual, before separat- 

 ing, agreed upon a particular point where they were to 

 meet again when the tide began to come in. Dusk came 

 on, and those who first returned to the boat rowed to the 

 point of rendezvous, there to await the arrival of their 

 comrades; but hour after hour passed, and some were yet 

 missing. The boat-keepers began to fear the worst; the 

 absentees had either lost their way on the wide desert of 

 sand, and were now wandering about hopelessly in dark- 

 ness, or they had perished in one of the many quicksands 

 which abounded on the shoal. Still they hung upon their 

 anchor, and waited till, at its appointed hour, the tide had 

 covered the whole bank, and not a doubt could remain 

 as to the fate of their friends. They then returned to 

 reveal the sad tidings to their relatives on shore, and at 

 early dawn repaired once more to the bank, now dry as 

 when they first landed. One body alone was found, and 

 he, like the Duck-shooter, had resorted to the same last and 

 forlorn hope. He had firmly fixed a boat-hook on the 

 highest ridge of sand, and having lashed himself to it with 

 his handkerchief, had determined there to await the 

 rising of the last tide he was ever destined to behold. 

 The bodies of his companions were never seen again, and 

 had probably found a resting-place in the deep channels of 

 the surrounding sea. 



Not far from the scene of this sad story, on the Cheshire 

 side of the mouth of the river Dee runs a ridge of three 

 small rocky islands, called Great Helbree, Little Helbree, 

 and at the southern extremity, at a somewhat greater dis- 

 tance, forming the termination of the ridge, the Little Eye. 

 At low water, the passage between these rocks and the 

 main land is entirely dry. At this time, therefore, those 

 who were inclined to take the chance of one single shot, 

 for a second loading was out of the question, bent their 

 way to the Little Eye, and took possession of a sort of 

 excavated hovel, where, under cover of a few rough stones 

 piled together, they were prepared to remain till high 

 water; when, if they were fortunate, (but this was by 



