364 SHOOTING FROM. A PUNT 



quently occur : though this pursuit is generally fol- 

 lowed by poor men, who have the worst, the others, 

 by gentlemen, who are provided with the best, of 

 every thing. In Poole harbour, for instance, where 

 the channels, at times, are far more dangerous than 

 in most other places, I should, at a rough guess, say, 

 there were, on an average, a hundred canoes ; and 

 yet, for these last fifteen years, which is as long as I 

 have known the place, I have never heard of but one 

 man being drowned, and he was not only subject to 

 fits, but had left the shore when in liquor. 



I here allude to open punts, than which decked 

 ones are of course infinitely less exposed to danger. 



SHOOTING WITH A STANCHION GUN 

 FROM A PUNT. 



Now that we have got the gun and punt together, 

 a few more words as to the shooting : those, who 

 fancy that any one can shoot well into a large flock 

 of fowl, will find themselves in a mistake. There is, 

 I must repeat, much more knack in it than people 

 are, at first, aware of; and, in my humble opinion, it 

 is far more difficult than to kill double shots at game ; 

 because the man, who can quickly pitch his gun on, 

 or just before, a partridge, has so little variation in 

 distance, as the birds are generally from twenty to 

 forty yards off, that, without any further calculation, 

 or practice, he might, in a slovenly manner, contrive 

 to knock down the greater part of those at which he 



