SEAFOWL SHOOTING SKETCHES. 61 



SEAFOWL SHOOTING ON THE KIBBLE (1894). 



That summer I built a flat-bottomed shooting canoe, or gondola, 

 i6ft. long by 4ft. 6in. beam, and i6in. deep. She had about 

 five feet of deck forward, a square stern, and plenty of camel in 

 her bottom, and was just right for shooting in shallow places, as 

 she only drew a few inches of water. Owing to other business, 

 although I duly kept up the ist of August, I was unable to launch 

 her until the 26th of that month, when three of us shoved her into 

 the water at an early hour in the morning. She proved to be as 

 tight as a bottle, which, of course, gave us very great satisfaction. 

 There was a slight rain falling at the time, but the weather 

 cleared up shortly, and away I pulled down the river, the boat 

 doing very well, but having a tendency to sheer on account of the 

 bottom being so round. 



Our bag proved to be a very light one, the weather being much 

 too mild and warm. I only got a couple of ring-plover, and the 

 same number of dunlin, whilst my brother Edwin and friend, Wm. 

 B. Edmondson, each shot four birds, so the honours were equally 

 divided. The total bag was four ring-plover, three dunlin, three 

 common sandpipers, and a couple of other small birds. We had 

 a good breakfast at the Bush Inn, and on the tide making, pulled 

 back home, all well tired, satisfied with the boat, but not with 

 the sport. 



Early the following morning we again set off, this time being 

 accompanied by a couple of relations of the gentler sex, who ap- 

 peared to enjoy the outing rather more than ourselves, but com- 

 plained a little of being cramped, which is generally the case in 

 a small boat. 



We broke our fast at the same hospitable place as the day 

 before, and on returning to the boat found her high and dry, about 

 thirty yards from the water, which was ebbing rapidly, so we lost 

 no further time, but proceeded to launch at once. We got the 

 women to sit first on the stem and then the stern whilst we worked 

 the boat round as on a pivot, and thus got her into the water once 

 more. 



Up to this time we had had very little sport, but now it began 

 to be a bit more brisk. We had got nearly to Lytham when we 

 saw a mixed lot of gulls and dunlin, &c., just over the wall. We 

 crouched low, and I gently sculled the boat to the bank, when we 

 jumped up and fired. I dropped a tern and my brother a black- 

 headed gull. The birds had got some distance from the wall, 

 consequently were rather too far away, or we might have done 



