396 SHOOTING WILDFOWL IN FRANCE. 



guns, was admirably good, and I have little doubt but 

 that, with proper equipment and apparatus, we might 

 have done wonders. 



We afterwards agreed for the exclusive right of the 

 shooting there, and protected it, according to the custom 

 of this country, by an armed garde-chasse, which part 

 was most ably performed by one of the commissary's 

 gens d'armes, who, in addition to his military fusee, 

 had provided himself with the terrific appendages of a 

 cutlass and a set of handcuffs. 



We found the French peasants very intelligent, and 

 useful to assist in shooting; and, although quite ignorant 

 of following birds on the water (in comparison with 

 Englishmen), yet they were pretty well up to the making 

 of bastions, huts, and every other trick for getting shots 

 on, and from, the shore. 



The French coast is plentifully supplied with wild- 

 fowl ; which there are far more easy of access than in 

 our country. Taking from between Cherburg and 

 Neville to Carentan, there is, I believe, no better place 

 within the same distance, from the south of England, 

 than this would be, for an enthusiast in the diversion. 

 Here the birds are now far more numerous than on 

 the coast of England ; and the very few shots that are 

 worth taking with the wretched guns and powder, 

 which are used by the few people who here follow wild- 

 fowl, render their sporting but a trifling impediment to 

 your enjoying the whole range of country. (Although 

 the powder is so execrably bad, yet the French shot is 

 well manufactured, and of good quality.) 



The only objection, however, after the ten or twelve 

 hours' sail, which this would about be from Lymington 

 or Poole, is, that the isolated situation of the country, 



