ON CONTINENTAL WATERS 245 



either went to sea or drifted up and down on the 

 tide in the river, mingled with the pochard, scaup, 

 and other diving ducks. The port of St. Nazaire is 

 a thriving shipbuilding centre, and it was a quaint 

 sight to watch these sleepy fowl, many with heads 

 tucked under their wings, and sometimes surrounded 

 by a crowd of pochard and scaup duck, drifting past 

 the entrance of the port, where the din created by 

 a busy army of workmen must have been plainly 

 audible to them. At low water the sandbanks lie 

 exposed in different parts of the river, and occa- 

 sionally I observed that birds would pack on them 

 and give the punter a chance of a shot. 



In January, 1894, I spent a few days with a friend 

 at Mean, near the port of St. Nazaire, in trying to 

 circumvent the ducks and teal of the Loire. A severe 

 frost unfortunately set in shortly after our arrival, and 

 the river soon became blocked with drifting pyra- 

 midical icebergs. Inland everything was frozen up, 

 and the ducks and teal suddenly disappeared, leaving 

 only the scaups, pochards, and diving ducks behind 

 them in the river. One bitterly cold day, however, 

 we managed to get a long shot with our punt-gun at 

 some teal and widgeon mingled together on one of the 

 sandbanks in midstream, but the water subsequently 

 became so rough with the strong tide running against 



