64 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



wandering gunner, who might have perceived the 

 birds already and perhaps venture on a random shot 

 before I could commence operations, or even de- 

 cide on the best mode of carrying them into effect. 

 There was not a human being within sight, nor 

 could I discover a single boat on the surface of 

 the water. I had hardly congratulated myself on 

 this fortunate circumstance, when a distant object 

 arrested my attention. It looked at first like a 

 plank of wood, or the trunk of a dead tree, as it 

 floated slowly down a narrow creek, and seemed 

 to be carried here and there at the mercy of the 

 current; still there was something suspicious 

 about it which prevented me from looking at 

 anything else, and I continued to watch its move- 

 ments with increasing anxiety. 



On reaching the open water it turned round, 

 apparently in an eddy of the tide, and gave me 

 an opportunity of examining its outline as the 

 broadside was turned towards me for an instant. 

 There was nothing, however, in this hasty glimpse 

 calculated to increase my alarm ; on the contrary, 

 I now felt more than ever convinced that I was 

 looking at an inanimate log, and my only fear at 

 this moment was that it might be drifted by the 

 tide which would soon begin to ebb or by the 

 irregular course of the channel, to that part of 

 the harbour where the hoopers were still sailing 



