26 SHOOTING THE DUCK 



Many of the punting fraternity contribute expe- 

 riences to various papers of various classes. These 

 writings detail the sunny side the occasional big 

 shot in occasional weather, the occasional week 

 during which luck and skill combined have run up a 

 total worth talking about. Of the other side periods 

 when the fowl are so few that blank or almost blank 

 days follow one another in dejecting succession, 

 times when the birds are near at hand in abundance, 

 and yet are put beyond the gunner's reach by the 

 state of the sea, spells of waiting on and setting up to 

 duck and geese, whose vigilance it is found almost 

 impossible to circumvent, days which are full of 

 promise, yet in which some unforeseen circumstance 

 wrecks the accomplishment of every prospective 

 shot we seldom hear. The consequence is that 

 very many people think they have only to buy a 

 punt and gun in order to secure certain and first- 

 class sport. The majority as far as my own expe- 

 rience in the matter is a guide of those who start 

 punt work throw up the game in disgust after a brief 

 trial. Their patience meets with no sufficient re- 

 ward : they think the possibilities and probabilities 

 of wild-fowling have been greatly exaggerated : their 

 first experience is enough for them : they can see 

 nothing in the sport compared with the certain and 



