128 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



to economise our ammunition. On one occasion when 

 shooting alone, the snipes lay well, and I selected my 

 shots, and killed with my Joe Manton gun nineteen 

 snipes following, and I began to think that no snipe 

 would escape me ; but in this I reckoned without my 

 host, for I then missed two or three. These birds are 

 very fine and fat, as they find here abundance of food. 

 Woe be to the person who attempts to shoot in these 

 morasses before the latter end of October or beginning 

 of November, by which time the great heat has sub- 

 sided, for the chances are two to one he will be attacked 

 with the dangerous intermittent fever, arising from the 

 malaria of those swamps. The people of this island 

 were very partial to the English that formed the 

 Embassy, and the peasantry frequently walked with us 

 to show us the game ; but when alone I took especial 

 care to keep them at arm's length, having been cautioned 

 to be on my guard, for to procure an English gun was 

 too great a temptation for a Sard to withstand : they 

 were highly gTatified by a present of two or three loads 

 of English powder, and although I never met them out 

 shooting, there can be little doubt but that many of 

 them had their guns concealed. We did not find many 

 Avoodcocks in this part of the country, but sometimes 

 bagged a brace of hares ; there was not cover enough for 

 either wild boai- or deer. 



After passing about ten days very agreeably at 

 this shooting-box, we returned to Cagliari, where we 

 had a pleasant addition (but not of sportsmen) to our 

 party. Sir Kobert Barry, with the Pomone frigate, a 

 first-rate naval officer, came into the port, also two 

 diplomatic travellers, the late Mr. Taylor and Mr. 



