GETTING A SHORE IN RO UGH WE A THER. 367 



in a breaking wave. With a swell you can some- 

 times run her up by watching the chance, but 

 rather throw the anchor out and let her pitch and 

 roll, and eveny// if it can't be helped, till a suitable 

 time to beach her. She won't sink, and one crack 

 against a stone, or strain on shore, will do her 

 far more damage than did she swamp outside. 



When towing home you can land on a lee-shore 

 in the following boat ; whether keel or flat-bottomed, 

 it won't hurt her. If alone in the fowling-punt, pay out 

 the line after making sure the anchor grips, till you 

 can step out and wade ashore. Anything is prefer- 

 able to a smash and the delay of repair a delay 

 perhaps embittered by the presence of subsequent 

 fine weather and abundance of fowl. The large gun 

 should be well secured on the floor of the punt, and 

 all loose gear in the following boat, if you have 

 one, when making for home in a rough sea. In 

 a punt, without outside aid, the gun should be not 

 alone well secured,* but everything movable stowed 

 in the best possible way for a wave-dance to shore. 

 Half-way, it won't be an easy matter to set things 

 right if they break adrift. Many fowlers trice up 

 their gun-muzzle such a height towards the stars 

 that the barrel resembles the jibboom of a collier. 

 It is a bad bit of ballast then in a punt and sways 

 about. A couple of feet is quite enough ; if water 

 then enters the barrel, depend on it the position is 

 serious, and a dry gun a small matter. 



The less things lumbering about a punt the 

 better : sticks, drawers, lockers, shelves, &c., only 



* Two ring-bolts some /ft. apart in the centre of the floor under the 

 cockpit will answer to lash the gun safe. 



