SUSSEX MUD-BOAT. 317 



hand, and by leaning your weight on a hand patten, 

 which, being a little " kammelled" slips along without 

 noise, and with the greatest ease, you may, with good 

 water boots, go two or three hundred yards without 

 getting the least wet. 



The gunner should not be black like the Hamp- 

 shire men ; but recollect, that, as all extraneous 

 bodies appear darker, he should be at least a few 

 degrees lighter than the mud, in order to appear 

 precisely of the same colour. 



There is another contrivance for traversing the 

 oozes, which is simply a very slight board, with 

 sides, somewhat in shape like the fore end of the 

 Hampshire punt, sawed off, and a tail board, or 

 bench, put across it. This is used on the Sussex 

 coast, in places where there are but very few creeks 

 to interrupt its progress. The way to manage it is 

 this : The gunner first lays his piece (a large hand 

 gun) into the " mud-boat ;" and then kneeling on 

 the bench with one knee, he kicks along with the 

 other leg, and advances with a rapidity that you 

 would hardly credit ; and when that leg is tired, he 

 changes it again, and works away as before. Having 

 got pretty near to his birds, he lies down in the 

 " mud boat," in which, if the mud is soft, he can 

 work along with his feet ; but if hard, he must " hold 

 on," and shove this kind of sledge before him. He 

 lies close on his chest to fire, and has a stock cut 

 away at the but, which is filled with horse hair. 

 This so much eases the recoil from his collar bone, 



