242 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



grey shadow, the top part of the trees catching a 

 flush of rosy light as the sun got low. More un- 

 fortunate accidents have taken place there, in past 

 times, than in any other place in this district, which 

 is lonely even now. The few that now shoot there 

 give the place a bad report. This has nothing to 

 do with the people for, if their blood runs hot, 

 they are kindly folks. It is owing to the treacher- 

 ous nature of the waters and the flats that border 

 on them. 



One Christmas eve, as the bells were ringing 

 their glad tidings out over the waters so near to 

 the old church, two fowlers were coming in from 

 the tide. How the catastrophe happened no one 

 knew, but the boat drifted in bottom upwards, 

 and two days afterwards the fowlers were found 

 stretched on the ooze. 



There is no such thing as extermination to be 

 feared so far as wild-fowl are concerned, although 

 the reclamation of valuable land for grazing and 

 building purposes from the sea has necessarily 

 done away with the decoys that captured them 

 in such vast numbers, as our decoy records prove. 

 There are only more left to go elsewhere. Because 



