SHOOTING WITH PUNT GUN. 99 



making me, if possible, more wet and uncomfortable 

 than I had been before. 



But to return : we were soon at the part of the loch 

 where the remnant of the ducks had congregated ; and 

 here we found them tolerably thick. Driven as it were 

 to their last stronghold, they seemed reluctant to quit 

 it, and rose, one by one, in straggling disorder. I 

 secured three more, making in all seven to my own 

 gun ; my companions counting one or two more. We 

 then returned to the marshy ground, shot a snipe 

 or two, and started for home with a fair bag; 

 though taking into consideration the number of birds 

 that went away, we had not killed as many as we might 

 have expected, or as had frequently, Alister assured 

 me, been killed on former occasions. Winter, however, 

 is a more favourable season for duck-shooting ; these 

 birds (as well as geese, and occasionally a few swans) 

 then lining the shores of the inlets and firths in vast 

 numbers, and a clever shot may then have excellent 

 sport. I was lately told by a gentleman that he had 

 known as many as forty-three wild geese killed at one 

 shot with a punt gun. But such wholesale butchery, 

 however advantageous in a mercenary view, does not 

 recommend itself to our admiration ; nor does it afford 

 that pleasing variety of incident which is the chief 

 inducement to the amateur sportsman, and which 

 may be best obtained with the common gun. 



My next is the narrative of a day's shooting along the 

 cliffs, occurring about the same time as the preceding. 



Having enjo} r ed some good and exciting sport on a 

 seal-shooting excursion a few years ago, though in a 

 different neighbourhood, I was very anxious to try my 

 luck again, having heard that a seal or two were 

 occasionally seen in the bay hard by. 



H2 



