CHAPTER XLI. 



THE SHOOTING-BOAT. 



#*#*** B u t a far nobler spoil 

 Awaits him on the river ; where the rocks 

 Aiding the roaring stream, it keeps at bay 

 The eager frost, and many a broken pool, 

 Half liquid and half solid, forms ; the haunt 

 Of all the kindred tribes that love to cleave 

 With glossy breast and paddling feet the flood." 



Fowling, a Poem, book v. 



THERE is a highly agreeable and satisfactory means of pursuing the 

 sport of wild-fowl shooting under sail, which is but one stage less in 

 importance to that afforded by the shooting-yacht. It is that usually 

 adopted in large rivers and shallow bays, where the shooting-yacht is 

 precluded from proceeding because of drawing too much water. 

 Thus the shooting-yacht and stanchion-gun are used for sea-going 

 purposes, and the open sailing-boat, with gun of smaller or equal 

 proportions, for inland waters and shallows. 



A boat for this purpose should be about twenty feet in length by 

 seven feet beam ; a shallow craft, with powerful bearings. 



Stability is a great desideratum in a boat required for this diversion. 

 It is not desirable that the boat should list on her side too much when 

 under sail, as it interferes with the management of the stanchion-gun. 

 A narrow deck-way of ten or twelve inches should be formed on 

 each side of the boat, which should have no bulwarks ; but the deck- 

 way should be upon a level with the gunwales. The fore and aft 

 part of the boat may also be partly covered in by a flush-deck, but 

 in other respects it should be entirely open. 



A boat of this description will require several hundred weights 

 of iron ballast, which must be deposited with careful discretion 

 beneath the platform. 



The stanchion-gun should be fitted with chock and necessary re- 



