118 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



connection with a female screw, attached to the fore cross-piece ; and 

 the male screw should be of sufficient length to raise or lower the 

 elevation of the gun from one to two inches. 



As to the position of the chock, or strong-piece, to which is attached 

 the necessary apparatus for checking the force of the recoil, it must 

 depend entirely on the means intended to be employed. If the patent 

 spiral recoil-spring is used, the interior of the punt must be fitted 

 accordingly. But if the strain is to be thrown upon the stem-piece, 

 the builder must take care to fix the same strong enough to receive it. 



The fore-parts of gunning-punts are sometimes left quite open, and 

 without any scantling or fore-deck ; but, when so constructed, they 

 require to be rather deeper at the bows than the dimensions stated at 

 page 116. 



The gunning-punt may be built entirely of fir, or the upper streaks 

 which are above water may be of fir, and the lower ones of elm ; if 

 all fir, the boat will be so much the lighter and more buoyant. A 

 gunning-punt should never be built of oak, it is too heavy for the 

 purpose. Many punters express astonishment that Colonel Hawker 

 should have recommended such a material : during the latter days 

 of the colonel's sporting career, however, he appears to have given 

 preference to elm and fir. 



The only objection to clench-built gunning-punts, with round 

 bottoms, is, that in a breeze, the ripples on the water make a trickling 

 noise against the planks of the punt as it is propelled forward ; called 

 in nautical language, "tell tales;"* that is to say, the noise tells the 

 helmsman of a breeze springing up. 



I once heard an objection raised to clench-built punts ; the punter 

 stating that but for the " tell tales," he could have heard the birds 

 feeding, and so discovered their whereabouts ; whereas the noise of 

 the water rippling against his clench-built punt not only precluded 

 him from so doing, but frightened the birds, and caused them to 

 take wing. But I think the statement scarcely feasible, because, by 

 resting a moment on the paddles, the " tell tales' 'become silent, and they 

 certainly cannot be heard by birds beyond forty or fifty yards' range. 

 I have never found the smallest inconvenience myself from the " tell 

 tales." A remedy may easily be found, if necessary, by substituting 

 a carvel for a clench-built punt. 



It is desirable that there should be no farther projection of the stem 



* This must not be confounded with " tell-tale," a portable mariner's compass. 



