STANCHION GUN. 359 



The floors and timbers should each be formed 

 together out of one piece of hoop ash, arid the sides 

 filled up with angle-pieces, which may be made of 

 light deal, and must be cut square so as to fit the sides 

 and the bottom, and round inside, in order to meet 

 the hoop timbers. The angle-pieces are merely to 

 fill up the space, so that no strength is required for 

 them. [Here we have a very great improvement on 

 the Poole plan ; but I have no pretensions to this part 

 of the invention : I believe we are indebted for it to 

 the Americans.] The sides, on this plan, may be 

 " flammed" as much as you please. This is a great 

 advantage both for safety, and for drawing little water. 

 The rowlocks and thowles must be all in one piece, 

 and made to ship and unship, as they must be so very 

 high* in order to let the oars clear the bulwarks, that 

 they might be too visible if left on while " setting" 

 or sculling to the fowl. 



This punt (if for a common shed stanchion-gun) 

 may be about the breadth of the Poole canoe, and 

 from three to eight feet longer, according to the 

 length of the gun and the depth of water that the 

 gunner has to shoot in. A punt of this kind, to be 

 made in perfection, should have no iron whatever 

 about her. Every nail, and other kind of fastening, 

 should be made of good copper. She should have 

 thin bottom-boards, in order to save the timbers ; and 

 in this case rugs or sheepskins will lie flat, and there- 

 fore be preferable to rushes or straw. 



