SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



tides, the strength and swiftness of which can 

 only be realized by those whose calling brings 

 them into daily contact with them, the punts- 

 man needs to exercise constant alertness. One 

 constant and ever increasing danger to punts- 

 men lies in the number of stakes, broken and 

 otherwise, which are left by fishermen in the 

 bottoms of the channels. A puntsman of my 

 acquaintance was thrown out of his punt in 

 consequence of its striking one of these sub- 

 merged stakes. It happened to be ebb tide, 

 and he was able to hold on until the water 

 had become sufficiently shallow to enable him 

 to get ashore in safety. But the risk of a 

 punt striking such an obstacle in the dark is 

 very great. 



The spring and neap tides have a marked 

 influence upon the movements of wildfowl. 

 The gunner has to learn by experience in 

 what particular position he is likely to find 

 the birds that he is in pursuit of, at daybreak. 

 Not only so, but he has to outwit the caution 

 of the most wary and suspicious wildfowl. An 

 incident which happened during the daytime 

 may be related here. I had occasion to leave 

 my punt at the edge of a narrow channel, and 

 as it did not matter whether she remained 

 fast or not I omitted to throw out the anchor. 

 After I had walked two or three hundred 

 yards towards the marsh where some barnacle 

 geese were feeding, I saw a flock of thirty or 

 forty barnacles come and settle on the water 

 edge, about 150 yards below where my punt 

 was lying. The intervening ground was 

 level, so that it was impossible for me to 

 return to the punt unobserved. Presently I 

 saw my punt drift off into the current. I 

 watched her with no small interest as she 

 gradually neared these shy creatures. I was 

 much surprised to see them sit until the punt, 

 without the gunner, was within forty yards of 

 them before they showed any signs of uneasi- 

 ness. Had I remained on board the little 

 craft they would not have allowed her to 

 approach within a hundred yards of them. 

 The quieter the movements of the puntsman 

 and the more he keeps out of sight while 

 ' setting to ' fowl, the better are his chances of 

 success. Another important qualification of 

 the fowler is the power of estimating distances 

 correctly. Water and sand are both decep- 

 tive with regard to distance. I remember 

 firing eleven shots at wigeon one stormy 

 day with a ten-bore muzzle loader, heavily 

 charged, and only killing one bird. As soon 

 as I saw it fall it dawned upon me that I was 

 shooting at too great a distance. At certain 

 times wildfowl are extremely restless without 

 any apparent reason. Manoeuvre as cleverly 

 as you may, they will not sit long enough to 



allow you to approach within range. Under 

 such circumstances it is best to leave them 

 alone, for if you get a shot at all it will 

 probably prove a long one, resulting only in 

 your wasting more ammunition in retrieving 

 three or four winged birds, while on the 

 other hand you may have scared other wild- 

 fowl, that under more favourable conditions 

 would offer good sport. I have long observed 

 that fowl of the night-feeding kinds are most 

 easily approached at daybreak. Like most 

 other creatures with well-filled stomachs, they 

 are inclined to be sleepy. After taking a 

 morning bath they settle down, and are not 

 so easily disturbed as at other times. But the 

 gunner who wishes to take advantage of this 

 circumstance must be willing to rise early, 

 for he must get into his punt between four 

 and six in the morning and push out in the 

 dark for a distance of two or three miles, until 

 he reaches the spot where he expects that the 

 wildfowl will alight at daybreak. An inti- 

 mate knowledge of the currents of the tide- 

 way is indispensable in order to secure even 

 partial success. 



Punting upon the Solway Firth in foggy 

 weather calls for the exercise of a more than 

 ordinary degree of caution. At such a time 

 the fowler can safely reckon upon getting 

 near enough to the objects of his pursuit if he 

 can find them without losing himself, but the 

 latter performance is by far the easier of the 

 two. When certain species of wildfowl have 

 settled during the prevalence of fog they are 

 very loth to stir, but if once they become 

 alarmed and take wing they are a long time 

 before they settle again. My mode of pro- 

 cedure in such a difficulty is to steer the punt 

 into a current which takes a fixed course and 

 drift with it to the place where I expect to 

 find fowl, with everything ready to shoot, 

 the lanyard fixed to the trigger being held 

 between the teeth. This means that the 

 gunner occupies a sitting position, with both 

 hands at liberty to keep the punt in the 

 required position, ready to fire the instant 

 that the birds appear in sight. On i Novem- 

 ber, 1892, a very foggy day, I allowed my 

 punt to drift with a strong flood-tide to the 

 place where I expected to find geese. There 

 I lay in a ' setting ' position, straining eyes 

 and ears to catch the least indication of their 

 whereabouts. The flap of a wing gave me 

 the required information. Presently about 

 thirty geese loomed out of the mist within 

 easy distance. To get the gun to bear upon 

 them was only the work of a few seconds. 

 After the smoke cleared off there was a sight 

 to make a puntsman glad and ' put him in a 

 splutter,' as we say in Cumberland. Three 



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