t'ANOE SHOOTING. 321 



land dog. Row about, till you can see or hear a 

 flock of wildfowl on the mud. To find them sitting, 

 if by night, look at first very low, so as to bring the 

 surface of the rnud in contrast with the horizon, by 

 which means you will overlook the black edges of 

 the creeks and holes, instead of seeing, and perhaps 

 mistaking them for, birds. 



When you have rowed within three or four gun- 

 shots of the fowl, take in your oars, and reconnoitre 

 the creeks. Having ascertained which is likely to 

 be the best, lie down, and push along with a stick 

 (called a set, or gunning-spread), and, while the 

 mudbariks stand above the little channels, you are so 

 completely hid, that you will seldom fail to get a 

 shot, provided there is a creek within reach of the 

 birds, and you do not go directly to windward of 

 them*. 



* The decoymen can go to windward of the birds, by means of 

 the smoke from a piece of dutch turf, or common peat, which, 

 after having it well dried, they are able to carry lighted in the 

 hand for the short time that is required to drive the wildfowl 

 into the pipes. Another recipe, of which some pretend to make 

 a great secret, is a paste ,of cowdung and chopped straw ; but, 

 before this will ignite properly, it must be baked in an oven for 

 about thrice as long as the time required for making bread. 



All these things may answer very well behind the screen of a 

 decoy; but in a canoe, or punt, the fire could not be so easily 

 concealed, and there would be some danger in lighting it where 

 one, without a retreat, was sitting on straw with gunpowder in 

 his pocket. The burnt turf, &c. may be used with success by a 

 person walking behind the high banks of a pond, or river, who 

 may light it, when required, by carrying on a match a little 



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