THREE MEN IN A PUNT 59 



private property. The remaining 64,737 acres 

 are Crown lands rather more than 100 square 

 miles the private property being just 43 square 

 miles. 



THREE MEN IN A PUNT. 



Friday, September 4th our last day! The 

 Major and his two infant prodigies started off to 

 fish for gray mullet and bass near the mouth of 

 the Avon and Stour. They landed on a kind of 

 desert neck of land which once upon a time 

 formed the seashore, but is now the mouth of 

 the river, the opposite side of which is another 

 spit of land formed by the silting up of the sand, 

 so creating a new barrier to the sea and extend- 

 ing the river for a considerable distance seaward. 

 Here the tide and the rush of the river form a 

 powerful stream, and in the middle of this stream 

 is a certain deep pool, in which the mullet linger 

 as they pass up with the tide, and here, almost 

 in the middle of the river, our three fishermen 

 are anchored, patiently casting their baits into 

 the water and waiting for a bite. The sport is 

 sometimes fast and furious, if you happen to hit 

 the right time. The Major soon caught a fine 

 mullet, and young Hercules hooked and punted 

 a wriggling eel which frightened him for he 

 took it for a young python. Just as the sport was 

 beginning, they heard the distant rumbling of 



