CHAPTER LXX. 



WILD-FOWLING IN FRANCE. 



" Or in a darksome night, 



Fires on the margin of the river light : 



Struck with the dazzling flame, ne'er seen before, 



Surprised, they slow approach the shining shore." 



THE fens of France, like those in England, have been drained 

 and cultivated of late years, with considerable skill and industry : 

 their appearance, when viewed at a distance, is wooded and pic- 

 turesque, most of them being planted with tastefully- arranged 

 avenues of willow-trees; and whole districts being intersected 

 with dykes and canals, varying in width from six to thirty yards, 

 thus forming hundreds of little islands of rich and fertile soil, 

 many of which are cultivated as market-gardens, and the products 

 conveyed to neighbouring towns in warms-boats. 



Some of the interior islands of these fens, which have not been 

 reached by the arm of husbandry, are still in a swampy and unculti- 

 vated state, covered with sedges and rushes; thus presenting an 

 extremely wild appearance, and affording excellent haunts for water- 

 fowl.* 



In some of the wildest districts of the French fens, numbers of 

 wild-fowl are killed in winter by the marais-fowlers, who of late years 

 have resorted almost exclusively to their guns, rather than the more 

 captivating system of decoy, which in Picardy was formerly much in 

 vogue. 



At the present day, there are only a few decoys in France em- 

 ployed upon the English system, though there are huttier's decoys 

 innumerable, which will be treated of presently. 



* Vide " Introduction to the Field Sports of France ;" by R. O'Connor, Esq. : 

 A.D. 1846. 



