16 SEAFOWL SHOOTING SKETCHES. 



SEAFOWL SHOOTING ON THE KIBBLE (iS8i). 



In the summer of this year (having removed to Preston at 

 the end of August, 1880), I personally built a small canoe on the 

 model of the Poole canoe, shown and described in " Hawker on 

 Shooting," and similar in dimensions, viz., i2it. long, 3ft. 7in. 

 beam, and nin. deep. Following the directions in Mr. Clement's 

 book, " Modern Wildfowling," I decked her over, leaving an 

 opening or cockpit in the centre 4ft. by 2ft. (I afterwards length- 

 ened it to 6ft.), with a sin. combing all round. She was fastened 

 all throughout either by copper nails or brass screws. The 

 bottom was three pine boards, fin. thick, the centre piece of 

 wood overlapping the other two and forming, as it were, a broad, 

 shallow keel. I gave everything a coat of red lead, but treated 

 the bottom with black varnish ; all the rest was painted with 

 white lead, containing just a shade of lamp black, which made 

 it a light lead colour. She was fitted, in addition, with a small 

 sprit sail. 



My friend, Luke Renshaw, of Manchester, having promised 

 to join me, duly turned up on the 3ist July with a cab load of 

 guns and other sundries. Indulging in pleasant anticipations 

 of sport, it was i a.m. on the ist before we turned in. At 345 

 we were down at the river, unfortunately, an hour too late, as 

 we found the boat high and dry in the dock with a lot of other 

 craft lying in front of her. Taking off our coats, we set to 

 work with a will, and after a deal of labour (she weighed about 

 3cwt., and was sadly too heavy) managed to launch her over the 

 wall. My dog, of course, instead of quietly leaping into the 

 boat, preferred swimming, so that when we did take him aboard 

 the shaking he gave himself was as good as a shower bath to 

 us. We arranged our armament, which consisted of two double 

 central-fire i2-bores, and a single central-fire full-choked 8-bore, 

 with plenty of cartridges, and then I pulled gently down stream 

 for a while, but hearing a lot of shooting I got impatient, and 

 landed on the south bank. 



- After a miss or two I dropped a sandpiper and a tern or sea 

 swallow. Then Renshaw got a bird from the boat. Much to 

 my annoyance, business prevented me going any further, so I 

 re-entered the boat and came ashore on the north side. 



Wishing my friend good luck, I proceeded up the brook, and 

 soon got another piper, which was dropped in the midst of its 

 gyrations, greatly to the admiration of a young man who was 

 pottering about with a single muzzle-loader. After Dash had 



