142 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES 



is to be seen ; but when the next tide is risen 

 sufficiently for the boats to get upon the flats, 

 then commences a scene of life and emulation 

 of incessant loading and firing of rapid gliding 

 hither and thither among the reeds, which, if 

 ten or fifteen parties are engaged on the same 

 marshes, requires to be seen, to be fully under- 

 stood. Let us suppose that the tide, which is 

 rising fast, with a stiff breeze from the south-east, 

 is as favorable as could be wished, and that the 

 moment has arrived when the pushers, laying 

 aside their oars, prepare for business, while the 

 sportsmen opening their rail-boxes and charging 

 their guns, station themselves in a standing posi- 

 tion to shoot. The post of the pusher is in the 

 stern ; that of the shooter a little abaft the bow. 

 Each pusher is stripped to his shirt and panta- 

 loons, and holds in his sinewy hands a pine pole 

 fifteen feet long, and weighing about four pounds. 

 It is his arduous task to flush and retrieve the 

 game ; the sportsman has nothing to do but to 

 load and shoot. A square tin box, made as small 

 as is convenient, and containing in its several 

 apartments ammunition, percussion caps and wad- 

 ding, lies at the feet of the last. These boxes 

 are now both neatly and strongly made; that 

 sold by Mr. Krider during the past season was 



