SUSSEX MUD-BOAT. 319 



which must not be removed till he has crawled suf- 

 ficiently on one side of his punt to be quite clear, in 

 case the gun should go off. 



This punt is so much lighter than any thing which 

 you can float in, that you may move it with one hand, 

 and by leaning your weight on a hand patten, which, 

 being a little " kammelled" slips along without noise, 

 and with the greatest ease, you may, with good water 

 boots, go two or three hundred yards without getting 

 the least wet. 



The best time for launching is rather before half ebb, 

 after the water has been over the ground, and made it 

 slippery. " Dead low water" is, of course, a bad time ; 

 because you have then great trouble to get your punt 

 upon the mud ; and treble the distance to go after 

 having done this. 



The gunner should not be black like the Hampshire 

 men ; but recollect, that, as all extraneous bodies ap- 

 pear darker, he should be at least a few degrees lighter 

 than the mud, in order to appear precisely of the same 

 colour. Indeed, the lighter the better, if no moon. 



SUSSEX MUD-BOAT. There is another contrivance 

 for traversing the oozes, which is simply a very slight 

 board, with sides, somewhat in shape like the fore end 

 of the Hampshire punt, sawed off, and a tail board, or 

 bench put across it. This is used on the Sussex coast, 

 in places where there are but very few creeks to in- 

 terrupt its progress. The way to manage it is this : 

 The gunner first lays his piece (a large hand gun) into 

 the " mud-boat;" and then kneeling on the bench with 

 one knee, he kicks along with the other leg, and ad- 

 vances with a rapidity that you would hardly credit ; 



