PUNTING BY DAYLIGHT. 151 



wallowing- in the mire, smothered and bedaubed from head to foot 

 with black soil. It was a human being-, in the shape of a great fat 

 man, whose features were entirely obscured by the mud ; but who 

 informed me, in reply to my questions, that he had been chasing- a 

 winged widgeon, and, in stooping to catch it, toppled headlong into 

 the bog, from which he found it impossible to extricate himself : 

 the more he struggled to get up, the deeper he sank in the mud. 

 Before I could render the man any assistance, I found it necessary to 

 return to one of the punts and fetch the bottom-boards, which I did, 

 and having carefully placed them on the bog, in front of the luckless 

 individual, by their aid and that of an oar I assisted him to his legs. 

 By no other available means could I have got him out, so soft and 

 rotten was the ooze at that particular spot. Half an hour afterwards 

 the tide flowed over it ; and had not the unfortunate man been 

 timely rescued from his critical position, there is no doubt but he 

 would have met a watery grave. 



