PREPARATIONS. 59 



gloomy in the distance as you faced the blast for 

 a moment and peered into the eastern horizon. 

 The sea was as dark as the sky, but its surface 

 was broken by the white crests of the angry 

 waves as they hurried towards the west, and thus 

 relieved the obscurity on that side of the pic- 

 ture, while long files of various species of wild- 

 ducks, and small parties of cormorants and guille- 

 mots, might be seen scudding along close to the 

 surface, but at a considerable distance from the 

 shore, and every now and then a great black- 

 backed, or a herring gull, swept past, a few yards 

 overhead, and flocks of sand-pipers skimmed ra- 

 pidly along the margin of the beach in the same 

 direction, all bound for the muddy flats and calm 

 waters of Pagham Harbour. 



I had made preparations over night for a re- 

 gular field-day. The distance from my residence 

 to the mouth of the haven was little more than a 

 mile along the shore, and I was thus enabled 

 though not without a certain degree of labour, 

 which, however, the intense cold rendered less 

 irksome to carry my own guns and ammunition, 

 and at the same time to dispense with the services 

 of an attendant, who, as experience had taught 

 me, proves rather an incumbrance than an advan- 

 tage on an expedition of this kind. My long 

 duck-gun was now unpacked, and a heavy double, 



