376 DUCK-SHOOTING. 



the fowler may slip and slide in the best way he can, or 

 (were it not for his mud-pattens, flat square pieces of board 

 tied to the feet,) through which he might sink up to the 

 middle waist. 



On one of these expeditions, a Duck- shooter, in Hampshire, 

 met with a perilous adventure. Mounted on his mud-pat- 

 tens, he was traversing one of these oozy plains, and being 

 intent only on his game, suddenly found the water rising with 

 the tide. Aware of his danger, he looked round, but his 

 retreat was already cut off; he was already surrounded with 

 the flowing sea, and death stared him in the face. But in 

 this desperate situation his presence of mind remained, and 

 an idea struck him, which might yet be the means of his 

 preservation. He gazed round to see if any part of this mud 

 desert was higher than the rest; and observing a small 

 portion still a foot or two above the water, he hastened to- 

 wards it ; and when there, striking the barrel of his long gun 

 deep into the ooze, he resolved to hold fast by it, as a prop 

 to secure himself against the buffetings of the waves, which 

 were breaking angrily around him, and had now reached his 

 feet ; and at the same time as an anchor, to which he might 

 cling, and not be carried away by the current of the flowing 

 or ebbing tide ; or, at all events, that if it was to be his sad 

 fate to perish, his body might be found by those friends who 

 might venture out to search for him. Well acquainted with 

 the usual rise of the tide, he had every reason to suppose that 

 it would not reach above his middle, and that if he could 

 endure the cold of six hours' immersion, he might be saved. 

 Unfortunately, however, he had not taken into account the 

 state of the wind, or some other causes, which had not only 

 brought the waters up more rapidly than usual, but would 

 also add to their height. Accordingly, having first felt the 

 chill and deadly sensation of ripple after ripple, now covering 

 his feet, then bathing him knee-deep, and then advancing 

 beyond his waist, he was horror-struck at finding, that in- 

 stead of receding, it still crept upwards, and had reached his 

 shoulders; the spray burst over his head; upon another minute's 



