98 DUCKS DEEP WATER. 



clear that most of the full-grown birds had left the loch, 

 and that they were chiefly young ones which had 

 collected at the far end ; thither therefore we at once 

 determined to make our way as well as we could. 

 Having marked carefully the spot at which Walter's 

 wounded bird had dropped, I proceeded thither to 

 secure it if possible, the gillie and retriever ac- 

 companying me at intervals of a few yards. A solitary 

 drake getting up in our front, fell to my gun and was 

 soon secured ; we then reached the spot where I had 

 previously marked the young bird down ; but for some 

 time our search was in vain. At length, however, when 

 the gillie and dog had wandered some distance away 

 from me, the former wading, the latter swimming, 

 I suddenly came upon the object of our search, sitting 

 in an open space almost free from weeds, a few yards in 

 advance of me ; and approaching very cautiously, while 

 the bird was looking at me with a stupid fascinating 

 gaze, I made a sudden spring forward and seized him, 

 but at the same instant found myself in much deeper 

 water, and I could scarce stifle a sob as my boots were 

 speedily filled. But it was not till I gained the dry 

 land that I realized fully the discomfort of waterproofs : 

 for then though my companions were shaking off the 

 wet, or losing it through the convenient cracks in their 

 boots, my superior outfit retained it all ; and since to 

 remove them, nearly amounted to pulling my legs 

 from their sockets, I was compelled to throw myself 

 on the ground on my back, and by putting up my 

 legs in a somewhat novel and picturesque position, 

 let the water turn out the same way by which it had 

 entered. This operation, however, did not much mend 

 matters ; for most of the water, finding its way up my 

 trousers, then ran very unpleasantly along my backbone, 



