

OVElt THE OOZES. 315 



night's work, may be about five or six miles. They 

 then go ashore, and either get into a pot-house, if 

 they have a sixpence to spend (which is not always 

 the case), or lounge about the shore till day-light 

 disappears, and the birds begin to fly; having first 

 put all " in order ;" that is, to draw out their mould 

 shot, which they generally have in, for the chance of 

 a goose " going down along ;" put in smaller shot ; 

 and regulate their gun so that it will bear about 

 eighty yards, when the punt is on the dry mud. No 

 sooner are the wigeon pitched than off they set, in 

 tarpaulin dresses ; and looking more like chimney- 

 sweepers than gunners, crawling on their knees, and 

 shoving this punt before them on the mud. No 

 matter whether light or dark, few birds or many, 

 bang ! goes the gun ; and no sooner have they 

 picked up what few birds are readily to be found, or 

 missed the fowl, which they very frequently do, as 

 the punt, by even a few periwinkles, might be thrown 

 off the line of aim, they proceed again ; thus travelling 

 all night (by " launching" over the mud, and rowing 

 across the creeks) in a direct line, similar to the march 

 of an army of coots. I should not omit to mention, 

 that, as the birds will seldom allow them to get into 

 the punt to fire, some of them draw the trigger with 

 a string at the end of the ramrod, and others creep 

 up on one side, and pull it off with the finger. This 

 is perhaps the most laborious, and the most filthy 

 work in all the department of wildfowl shooting; 

 and not onlv that, but it so ruins the country, that 



