Tree-Shooting. 37 



CHAPTER III. 



TREE-SHOOTING: A FISHING EXPEDITION. 



JUST on the verge and borderland of the territory 

 that could be ranged in safety there grew a stunted 

 oak in a mound beside the brook. Perhaps the roots 

 had been checked by the water ; for the tree, instead 

 of increasing in bulk, had expended its vigour in 

 branches so crooked that they appeared entangled in 

 each other. This oak was a favourite perching-place, 

 because of its position : it could also be more easily 

 climbed than straight-grown timber, having many 

 boughs low down the trunk. With a gun it is difficult 

 to ascend a smooth tree ; these boughs therefore were 

 a great advantage. 



One warm afternoon late in the summer I got up 

 into this oak, and took a seat astride a large limb, with 

 the main trunk behind like the back of a chair and 

 about twenty feet above the mound. Some lesser 

 branches afforded a fork on which the gun could be 



