278 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



craft, they lacked the beautiful contour found in punts built 

 by practical gunning-punt builders. 



Well may these professionally-built punts, as we call them, 

 be perfect, or nearly so (not to make too much of them), 

 when the price for a shallow double, made of yellow pine 

 bottom, sides and deck, elm knees, oak stem and stern, ash 

 coaming, oak floor timbers, and deck rafters, copper fastened, 

 rightly made (this says a lot), and complete with fir cockpit 

 cover, oars, and other appurtenances, is between ^40 and ;^5o. 

 This seems a lot of money for a punt. No doubt a double 

 punt could be built for much less, yet the above sum is not by 

 any means above that which could readily be absorbed in cost 

 of material and labour necessary to produce a good punt. All 

 the timber employed in the making of a gunning-punt must be 

 sound, good, and of special sizes. Oftentimes a fair amount 

 of money is spent in finding such material. This is, of course, 

 expense to no account ; yet, nevertheless, it adds to the total 

 cost. Then, again, a good deal of waste has to be paid for in 

 securing the right size of planks, etc., this meaning another 

 extra cost of what really never goes into the punt itself. Many 

 punt-gunners I am personally acquainted with could never 

 believe a punt to be worth the amount asked until they be- 

 came desirous of possessing one of their own building. I 

 must confess that at one time this was also my own case. 

 Except for the clinker-built sea-punt, and in lieu of placing 

 your order with a punt specialist, I should advise that a good 

 joiner be engaged to build your punt, under the personal 

 supervision of one versed theoretically, if nothing else, in the 

 construction of gunning-punts. For ordinary fowling-punt 

 construction, and disregarding professional punt-builders, it 

 might not be going too far to say that a really good joiner, 

 under a punter's eye, will make a far better gunning-punt than 

 an ordinary boat-builder ignorant of punt-gunning, left to his 

 own resources, even with a drawing. There are so many small 



