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itself, is a sport left for the most part to professionals. 

 It may be followed, by the way, with great success in 

 the Dutch polders and marshes ; in the sand-dunes of 

 the Flemish seaboard, and in some of the north- 

 western departments of France. On the mud-flats 

 and sands in our own eastern counties, and on the 

 sand-banks and bars at the mouths of the brackish 

 estuaries, among the floating sea-weed, in sharp frosts 

 at the commencement of the winter, the bag may be 

 filled with a wonderful variety. Stalking along under 

 cover of the sand-hills and sea-walls ; stealthily turning 

 along the bends of the creeks, where the waters are sink- 

 ing with the reflux of the tide ; crouching in blood- 

 thirsty expectancy as you see a flight skimming towards 

 you along the beach you may kill herons, curlews, 

 ducks, and plovers, with many a species of diver and 

 wader, of which some may be as rare as the most of 

 them are common. Nor shall we embark on board one 

 of the handy little yachting craft, of which the crew is 

 but a man, with possibly a boy, but which, neverthe- 

 less, have most elastic accommodation below, while 

 there is actually room on deck for the dingy, which is 

 often towing astern. The cabins of these are snug 

 places enough, as they are assuredly compact ; but the 

 owners, amateurs and town-bred though they may be, 

 always strike us as being among the most venturesome 

 of British mariners. We take it for granted that the 

 skipper is proof to sea-sickness, and it may be assumed 

 that he is equally confident that he was never born to 

 be drowned. For to say nothing of the notion of 



