SHOOTING THE DUCK AT SEA 31 



or the other direction, either the user's sport will fall 

 short of the best possible or else his personal safety 

 will be subjected to considerable risk. The balance 

 has to be struck somewhere between speediness and 

 handiness on the one hand and safety on the other ; 

 between the slow heavy tub which was good enough 

 when gunners were few and fowl plentiful and tame 

 a type still favoured by certain sportsmen of the more 

 nervous or discreet kind and the really dangerous 

 craft one sometimes sees in use on the coast, there 

 is a highly desirable mean. Though a punt must be 

 slight and fast, in the long run there is no advantage 

 derived from cutting things very fine ; shots may be 

 had in still water from a very slight and fast punt 

 which might or would have been unattainable from a 

 slower one with more beam ; but, on the other hand, 

 the heavier punt can be launched at fowl under con- 

 ditions which would render the use of the slight punt 

 dangerous or decidedly risky. Of course if a punt 

 be required only for use on some sheltered estuary, it 

 may be built on slighter lines than one in which the 

 wild-fowler's ordinary risks are taken. In the opinion 

 of the very large majority of fowlers, Sir Ralph 

 Payne-Gallwey has said, in the ' Badminton Library,' 

 the last word that can be said on punt dimensions. 

 As the question is of the first importance to 



