378 SHOOTING BRENT GEESE 



goose, the others may all get off to sea. If you are 

 near enough to reach a wounded bird without a gun, 

 take him horizontally across the neck with the edge of 

 an oar, or you may thrash away at him to no effect, till 

 you have splashed yourself from head to foot ; so very 

 hard are the upper coverts of his feathers. In shallow 

 water, where he is not obliged to swim, a good light 

 dog will do more in five minutes, than a party of men 

 could do in an hour. But when once the dog is out of 

 his depth, these birds are so quick in diving, that they 

 will most probably escape from him. 



When it blows fresh and the tides are very high, you 

 will always do best by leaving the geese quiet: 1. Be- 

 cause they are then more dispersed, and there are then 

 more stragglers to catch a view of your broadside : 

 2. because they are so buried in the waves that, if you 

 shoot sitting, the water will intercept the shot ; and, 

 on their flying up, the wind is apt to disperse them, so 

 much that you cannot kill many : and, 3. because they, 

 finding no inducement to stay in one place, while there 

 is no food to be got, have no other employment than to 

 be constantly on the watch. Always, therefore, waif 

 till the " ground ebb ;" and then the birds, having been 

 beat about, and starved, for perhaps all the food, and 

 all the after-flood *, will be so greedy for a good feed, 

 that you will, at this time, get much nearer to them ; 

 and find them well congregated for a heavy shot ; par- 

 ticularly if your punt draws so little water as to enable 



* We have two tides on the Hampshire coast. The first as the 

 water flows in from the Needles ; the second as it comes down the 

 Western Channel. The second is generally two hours after the 

 first; so that, in high tides, the water sometimes keeps up for 

 several hours. 



