VISIT TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 33 



A COMPANY OF PUFFINS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ON a fine morning, towards the end of May, three of 

 us mounted the Rocket Portsmouth coach ; double-barrel- 

 led patent percussions having heen previously duly pre- 

 pared, and a suitable supply of copper caps, powder and 

 shot, and the etceteras of bird-stuffing laid in \ and the 

 close of day found us at Newport, in the centre of the Isle 

 of Wight. The next morning we reached Freshwater, or 

 Freshwater Gate, as the natives term it, experiencing a 

 most sanguinary feeling against all manner of sea-fowl and 

 ornithological rarities : we, however, soon learned that we 

 must reserve our ardour until the following morning, for 

 that the birds went to seaward at sunrise, and did not return 

 until it was too dark at night to get any shooting ; so we 



D 



