4 66 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



fixed coaming. This last is the best and simplest 

 method. In a side-paddling punt the openings 

 should be cut for the fowler's arms just where he 

 reaches over the gunwale to paddle when lying 

 down to his gun, and slides to drop in them at other 

 times. In a sculling single punt one opening only 

 is required in the after end of the starboard coam- 

 ing (see Plate 1 3, page 467, for both). 



MOVABLE SHUTTERS IN COAMING. 



To lift out for paddling or sculling in double and single fowling- 

 punts. Their ends drop between stout sheet copper strips, well 

 secured, of the same height as the coaming, and projecting 

 about an inch, as above. 



Our little* gunboat should now be ready to launch 

 and receive her big gun on board. May she have 

 luck against the army of wildfowl, whether under 

 the wintry moon or the cold blue sky of a frosty 

 day in December ! 



* So small can a fowling-punt, that is side-paddled, be built, that 

 for a forty to fifty pound gun she need not exceed i4ft. 6in. over all ; 

 1 3ft. yin. on floor ; beam across gunwale, 2ft. Qin. ; on floor, 2ft. 4-in. ; 

 height of stem, 5^in., of stern, 8|in. A short craft like this is very 

 handy in narrow channels, but from her greater freeboard looms large 

 to the fowl in comparison to a longer, and therefore a lower one. 



