MORE ABOUT FOWLING ON LONGSHORE. 299 



near enough to fowl to shoot them. I have been 

 outwitted hundreds of times by wild creatures, 

 sometimes to my great delight, and again at times 

 to my very great mortification. 



It has only been in the latter part of my life 

 that I have been able to fully understand wild 

 creatures ; there is so very much for you to forget, 

 before you can really know a little of the truth. 

 Superficial observation is useless ; theories are both 

 dangerous and misleading, with regard to the 

 beautiful and gifted creatures formed to have their 

 place with us on the earth and the waters. They 

 are gifted with a rare intelligence, which at times 

 is most baffling to man's understanding. There 

 is good reason for birds being so frequently men- 

 tioned in one of the oldest and best of books. As 

 to the legitimacy of killing these for food, if 

 bullocks were shot in a meadow and dressed 

 there, according to some enlightened ones that 

 would be cruel sport ; but as they are killed in 

 the slaughter - house, it only represents to these 

 good and highly sensitive people so many sirloins 

 and legs of mutton of the very best and tenderest 

 quality. 



