318 LAUNCHING SLEDGE. 



frightehers from Itchen Ferry, that had got downhere ; and buried 

 theirselves the same as the launchers do and there they kept peeping 

 out of their holes/' (here he became quite dramatic), lf and popping 

 up their stupid heads, and looking, for all the world, like so many 

 dead people rising out of our St. Mary's church-yard ! This is a 

 precious pretty pass for gunning to come to ! To have all the birds 

 drove away by them as kills none theirselves, nor won't let others, as 

 do know how, kill 'em and by stupes too wot knows as much 

 about gunning, as gunning knows about them ! ! Ah, Sir ! prowising 

 'tis to be so another winter, with the blessing of God, I '11 get off to 

 Wexford in Ireland, or to foreign parts, or somewhere or other, where 

 we can get a few heavy shots in peace ! ! " 



Thus concluding, as he began, with a symphony of 

 hearty oaths, he tapped his tobacco-box, for a fresh 

 " quid," arid held forth on the more cheerful subject of 

 what he had done in better times. 



LAUNCHING-SLEDGE. For a man who goes long 

 distances on the mud, it would of course be dangerous 

 not to have a boat that would carry both himself and 

 his gun , in case he should be overtaken by a quick flood- 

 tide before he could escape. But to one who was con- 

 tent with merely having that, in which, with high land 

 behind him, he could just shove off, and catch the birds 

 under the moon, in such a place as the edge of some 

 river, where the mud is pretty level and clear of holes, 

 I shall prescribe one much lighter, and in which he can 

 never be tempted to endanger his life afloat. The 

 drawing will at once explain it sufficiently, and the 

 only caution that can be required against accident is, 

 that, as his gun must be cocked before he advances, he 

 had better have a bit of cork to intercept the flint or 

 detonater, which can be drawn away with a string (as 

 the noise of cocking a gun might spring the birds), and 



