WILD-FOWLING AFLOAT BY NIGHT 197 



banks by an ebb tide for several hours on a cold 

 night owing to your topography being faulty, and the 

 possibility of being swept out into some dangerous 

 tideway against which you would be powerless to 

 propel your punt, are weighty matters with which you 

 must earnestly reckon. One learns, of course, these 

 things by experience, but risks are often undertaken 

 without calculating their full extent at the time. With 

 due caution and judgment, however, punting by night 

 ordinarily involves few risks, unless you happen to 

 be caught in a fog, in which case you will require 

 all your wits to find your way home, and this, even 

 though you may know your ground thoroughly well 

 in clear weather. 



Favourable nights for punting are few and far 

 between. Sometimes the wind blows so freshly that 

 you cannot hear the cries of the fowl or ascertain 

 their whereabouts; and at other times, though the 

 night may be in other respects favourable, the light is 

 often insufficient for you to see them when within 

 fair gunshot. According to my ' Wild-fowl Diary ' it 

 seems that, during three consecutive winters, suitable 

 nights for punting averaged fewer than thirty each 

 season, reckoning from the early part of December 

 to March, whilst in mild winters, when stormy weather 

 and fogs were very prevalent, the occasions on which 



