60 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



The place for which we were pushing was a 

 low, marshy meadow, partly covered with rushes, 

 and lying in a sort of winding nook between the 

 Salem road and the river bank, outside of which 

 was a tide-water flat, where birds are often found 

 feeding in April on a calm day. The meadow 

 was traversed by a run of some size, and some 

 apprehensions had been expressed by T. of its 

 proving too wet, although Pierson had assured 

 us that the snow had been off the ground so long 

 that it was now in excellent order for snipe. It 

 was easy to see by the state of the ground over 

 which we passed, in making a short cut to avoid 

 a turn in the bank, that the wind and the sun 

 had been unusually active in the process of eva- 

 poration, for the season of the year, though we 

 looked in vain for the fishermen from whom our 

 host had derived his information ; the sheds be- 

 hind the bank, where they are almost always to 

 be found mending their gill-nets in the first of 

 the season, being now apparently deserted. 



The tide was up over the flat, and as we halted 

 a moment on the bank and looked inland, it was 

 plain that if birds were to be found at all, it was 

 on the meadow before us. After reconnoitering 

 an instant, we crossed the ditch and separated. 



A gentle breeze was blowing from the south- 



