WILD-FOWLING AFLOAT BY NIGHT 189 



destined to be effaced by a series of adventures the 

 same winter which caused me considerably to modify 

 my first impressions of punting, and indeed made me 

 eventually a devoted follower of the sport. 



Wild-fowl were unusually abundant, and one fine, 

 frosty night we had the good luck to obtain two excel- 

 lent shots at widgeon and sheldrakes. Several of our 

 crippled widgeon were strong runners, and before we 

 could catch them they succeeded in gaining the shore 

 and disappearing down some rabbit holes in the 

 sand banks. With the ' makeshift ' implements at our 

 command we had much trouble in digging them out, 

 and it was not until day broke that our task was ac- 

 complished. The wind was then blowing strongly, 

 and things being generally unpleasant we put in for 

 shelter under the lee of a Dutch ship which happened 

 to be lying at anchor off a jetty near by. 



We had not been long there, however, when a 

 sad mishap occurred. In reaching over the stock of 

 our stanchion gun to procure some edibles for break- 

 fast, our oilskins fouled the trigger, and the next 

 instant a pound of shot went hurtling through the 

 ship's timbers at a range of, perhaps, two feet from 

 the muzzle, leaving a wide, splintered gap as a tell-tale 

 to all beholders. Fervently praying that no one was 

 aboard, and that the mischief might :thus remain 



