1 62 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



that, show the haunts of fowl to " tinkering duffers," 

 who would only frighten them ? No one has more 

 respect for the true sportsman than I have, but it is 

 for the genuine article ! 



If under the most favourable conditions, with the 

 most intimate knowledge of the " gripes " and gullies 

 of the slub ooze, fowl are hard to circumvent, what 

 must it be under foul weather ? For, to the stranger, 

 the slub looks like a level flat ; but it is not one by 

 any means, for when the tide ebbs and flows, it 

 rushes up and down these gullies in the ooze like 

 a mill-race. Money earned by fowling is hardly 

 earned. If it were not for the sporting element, 

 the difficulties would be unbearable. 



There is more traffic on the tidal waters now than 

 there used to be. Where at one time you would 

 only see one or two sleepy barges in a day, you 

 will now see fifty or more different craft. Steamers 

 and steam-launches have made fowl shy, to say 

 nothing about steam -tugs, with a heavy fleet of 

 barges behind them, churning all up from the 

 bottom and sides. 



It is mainly owing to the danger attached to 

 fowling that it is so fascinating. A shore-shooter 



