BAY-SNIPE AND OTHER WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 27 



security, beyond the reach of white poacher or Indian 

 robber. The Canadian laws prohibit all such devasta- 

 tions, but the enactments are easily evaded. It is said 

 that more fowls are thus destroyed than by the guns of 

 all the fowlers of the coast. 



In New England there is no sporting-club to monopo- 

 lize the ground and maintain exclusive privileges. The 

 coot- shooting is free to all, and old ocean opens wide its 

 gates, and with its rolling billows invites the daring gun- 

 ner to its breast. There is much real hardship, and some 

 spice of danger, in the sport, that is unknown to the 

 shooter in the sheltered bays of Long Island, the waters 

 of Barnegat in Jersey, or the shoal creeks and shallows 

 of Carrituck Sound. The coot-shooter has to dare the 

 combing breakers ready to engulf, the sharp and hidden 

 rocks eager to impale, and the sudden and violent gales, 

 sufficient to sweep the dancing skiff far away from 

 friendly shore to the pitiless wastes of ocean. We have 

 had many a desperate struggle against wind and tide, 

 when caught out a mile at sea in our diminutive craft, by 

 a sudden gale blowing from the shore, and we have seen 

 hair-breadth escapes from certain drowning among the 

 venturous coot-shooters. There are many capital points 

 for the shooting on that coast, the best of which are the 

 Boarshead, at Hampton, N. H. ; Cohasset Rocks, Scit- 

 uate Harbor, Brant Rock, Marshfield, and Manamet 

 Point, at the mouth of Plymouth Bay. We have had many 

 a good day's sport at each of these places, for at them 

 all, the fowl-flight is plentiful, and the fishing unsur- 

 passed. It is a rule that the first boat in early morning 

 to reach the shooting-ground shall have the first choice of 

 place; and sometimes the sportsman most eager for the 

 sport will anchor his boat, in the darkness, off the outer 

 rock of the reef, and wrapping himself close in his shoot- 

 ing-coat, lie down and sleep till awakened by the dawn 



