360 DUCK-SHOOTING. 



perate situation his presence of mind remained, and an idea 

 struck him, which might yet be the means of his preservation. 

 lie gazed round to see if any part of this mud desert was 

 higher than the rest ; and observing a small portion still a foot 

 or two above the water, he hastened towards it; and when 

 there, striking the barrel of his long gun deep into the ooze, 

 he resolved to hold fast by it, as a prop to secure himself 

 against the buffetings of the waves, which were breaking 

 angrily around him, and had now reached his feet ; and at the 

 same time as an anchor, to which he might cling, and not be 

 carried away by the current of the flowing or ebbing tide ; or, 

 at all events, that if it was to be his sad fate to perish, his 

 body might be found by those friends who might venture out 

 to search for him. Well acquainted with the usual rise of the 

 tide, he had every reason to suppose that it would not reach 

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

 hours' immersion, he might be saved. Unfortunately, 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. Accord- 

 ingly, 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 himself up for lost, he firmly grasped 

 his gun-barrel. The mainland 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 assur- 

 ance 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 



