NIGHT-PUNTING. 169 



The punter should remember that time goes fleetly when he is 

 ardently pursuing winged birds on the ooze : and, in his eagerness to 

 recover them, he must not risk his personal safety, for the tide 

 pays no respect to persons, but is sometimes found an ugly cus- 

 tomer. 



Another danger attendant on walking the ooze at night is, the risk of 

 encountering holes and very rotten places, which abound in some 

 oozes, and over which it is unsafe to walk even by daylight, though 

 in splashers : the soil being so soft that it will scarcely bear a duck. 

 The perils of venturing over such ground have already been treated 

 on at pages 99 and 150. 



It is useless to go on a punting excursion on windy nights ; if the 

 moon be ever so bright, the birds cannot be seen until close upon 

 them, because of the ripples upon the water. The more successful 

 proceeding on a windy, moonlight, night would be, to go in a small 

 sailing-boat, with a swivel-gun. 



rending cries were heard at a long distance. The feelings of the poor boys can be 

 better imagined than described, as grim death was constantly before them, and 

 gradually drawing nearer and nearer, in the hideous form of an ugly tide, rapidly 

 encircling their bodies, rising higher and higher towards their heads, and finally 

 swallowing them up, and launching them into eternity. The poor boys were both 

 drowned before a boat could approach them. A more appalling or more horrible 

 death can scarcely be imagined. 



