36 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



own experience, and I believe that the majority of men 

 are similarly constituted. If men would but give 

 the same attention, the same pertinacious assiduity 

 to business affairs that are bestowed by the devotee on 

 field sports, it cannot be doubted that their fortune 

 in amassing wealth would be equal to their success in 

 filling game bags. 



As the sun dipped in the western horizon, or as near 

 as possible to that time murky, dark, threatening 

 clouds preventing the luminary from being seen we 

 entered the wet, marshy margin which bounded our 

 future scene of operations. With much difficulty, and 

 the energetic use of all the vim left in us, we pro- 

 gressed slowly and steadily, till we reached the edge of 

 the water, where, ensconsing ourselves in the centre of 

 some of the scattered aquatic-loving brush which vege- 

 tated in the vicinity, we awaited the result. 



Permit me, kind reader, to deviate from facts, and 

 give a hint to all who love the gun that they may find 

 useful in their future essays against all descriptions of 

 game. I have heard sportsmen, and they gentlemen of 

 experience, condemn Colonel Hawker for impressing 

 upon his pupils the necessity of particular attention to 

 their costume, many thinking he devoted too much time 

 and pains to what appeared to them a very unnecessary 

 desideratum. If any one who peruses these lines should 



