326 CANOE SHOOTING. 



you can sufficiently recover your eyes, from being 

 dazzled by the fire, to see them. Your man then puts 

 on his mud-boards, taking the setting pole to support 

 him, arid assists the dog in collecting the killed and 

 wounded ; taking care to secure first the outside birds, 

 lest they should escape to a creek. During this time 

 you are left in charge of the punt ; and should, if pos- 

 sible, keep a look out, in order to see if any more birds 

 fall dead, or wounded, from the company, before they 

 have flown out of sight. 



The gunner generally calculates on bringing home 

 the half only of what he shoots, from the difficulty of 

 catching the whole of his winged birds, which he calls 

 cripples, and those that (to use the pigeon phrase)^// 

 out of bounds, which he calls droppers. If birds fly up 

 he generally declines firing, knowing that the moment 

 they are on wing they become so much more spread 9 

 that he could seldom get more than three or four, for 

 which it would be hardly worth while to disturb 

 the mud ; particularly as wigeon, by night, if not fired 

 at, will probably settle again at no great distance. 



The Poole men sometimes go partners, by which 

 means they can, with a very light punt, use two poles 

 at a time, and shove up a creek that is nearly dry, and 

 then fire two guns to a whispered word of command. 

 This they call a " double gun, 1 ' and, by such means, 

 they, some years ago, could frequently secure forty or 

 fifty wigeon at a time. 



But, within these .very few years, Poole harbour, as 

 well as almost every other part of the English coast, 

 has been ruined for all the poor hand-gunners, by the 

 introduction of punt-guns, that carry from one to nearly 

 two pounds of shot ; which, as the sovereign remedy in 



