114 



METHOD IN THE NORTH. 



the marshes and the river, to enjoy the extatic pleasure of spending- the night, 

 groping 1 about in the mud, at the risk of being' smothered, or upon the water, at 

 that of being drowned, in all the horrors of fog and darkness, blood-chilling damp- 

 ness, the cutting and rheumatic assaults of the North East Wind, and the benumb- 

 ing effects of frost. 



Such inevitably is the dreadful nightly hardship, and peril of those poor men 

 who earn a living by Wild fowl shooting. On parts of the Northern Coast, 

 numbers support themselves and families in this way, during the greater part of 

 the year, their dreary and sterile Country affording them no other means of support. 

 Wild fowl of every description, Soland Geese, and Sea Gulls, are propagated in 

 stupendous quantities among the cliffs and precipices of those rocky shores, and those 

 have long since been a staple article of commerce with the above hardy adventurers. 

 It is the practice of these men to construct huts of sods, mixed up with clay and 

 other proper articles, in the clefts and recesses of the rocks, which from their situa- 

 tion are judged to be most promising of success. These huts, so contrived as to 

 appear part of the rock itself, are fixed within about a quarter of a mile of each 

 other. Each hut has a door and a cupboard for the security of the materielle, the 

 ammunition and provisions; also three circular loop holes of four inches diameter, 

 to the riff lit, the left, and the centre, for the discovery of the fowl at their approach, 

 and the convenience of discharging the guns. The dog is dispatched on a for- 

 tunate shot, and never refuses pursuing his game, however desperate and dangerous 

 the path to it may be. Huts of this kind might surely succeed in more pleasant 

 reo-ions, and for the agreeable diversion of fowling by day, as described above. 



The Water Dog, exposed as he is to labour and severities, for the support of 

 which, the hardiest constitution can be scarcely adequate, is seldom treated with 

 that degree of care and kindness, to which he seems undoubtedly entitled. 

 Besides being substantially fed, the utmost care should be used, to enable him 

 thorouo-hly to dry his coat in a warm soft bed, on returning home from his chill- 

 ing toils. 







