254 ENTENTE COEDIALE. 



too great. I pitched my gun to my shoulder, held 

 well in front, and really made a clever and difficult 

 shot. ' Guess you do know how to handle a shoot- 

 ing-iron/ my boatman remarked. 'Come, let us 

 have a tod of that old rye/ alluding to a flask of 

 whisky I had with me, ( and well hitch teams and 

 travel the same road/ Feeling like one who has 

 in the shafts a nag that wants coaxing more than 

 coercion, I produced my pocket pistol ; and while I 

 drunk to the Queen, he toasted General Jackson. 

 However, the entente cordiale was established, and 

 I learned a lesson that was not without its benefit 

 in after life. 



Though poling under a vertical sun is not light 

 labour, my democratic friend stuck to it, and forced 

 me through and over almost insuperable obstacles. 

 The rails, as usual, were lumbering and slow on the 

 wing when just flushed, and the majority getting up 

 under the bow of the boat, I take small credit to 

 myself for missing very few, although I fired away as 

 rapidly as I could load. Moreover, I was so won- 

 derfully successful in finding the dead and dying that 

 the list of slain began to assume a formidable appear- 

 ance. The tide, however, commencing to run out, 

 first slowly, but, by degrees, more rapidly, the game 

 again had mother earth to traverse, a warning, that 

 was not disregarded, for us to discontinue further 

 labour. 



With a bag numbering many dozens, I landed, 

 well satisfied with the sport ; and, as our bargain 



