WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 363 



birds for sale. A gun of immense weight is fixed 

 upon a rest or frame or carriage, either in a flat- 

 bottomed canoe, or some other floating craft calcu- 

 lated to make way either in shallow water, or ooze, 

 or over sands. It may for once be fine amusement 

 to an amateur-shot to row about in quest of hoopers, 

 (wild swans,) geese, and widgeons, in a frosty 

 moonlight night, with an experienced craftsman 

 and Newfoundland dog, but a few blank nights in 

 succession have a remarkably cooling effect. Much 

 has been said of the luxury of a shower-bath, and 

 of its salutiferous properties, something has lately 

 been written on the young deer- stalker's emotions 

 when he first feels the mountain-burn enter at the 

 breast of his shirt. We, too, could be discursive 

 on the amateur-gunner's sensations when his New- 

 foundland Neptune shakes the superincumbent salt 

 fluid from his hide every time he returns to the 

 boat. Wishing them success, we leave the coast- 

 gunners to their trade ; our notions of sport do not 

 extend to rowing about, during a wintry night, in 

 a wet boat, with a swearing seaman and a damp 

 doo\ 



O 



POINTERS AND SETTERS. 



The dog seems to be endued with some instincts 

 for the exclusive service of man ; whereas the in- 

 stincts of all other animals are conducive to the 

 supply of their individual wants, and their useful- 

 ness to man is secondary thereto. It would be diffi- 

 cult to controvert the argument, that the pointer's 

 instinct was given for the purpose of aiding men 

 to capture or kill game, by means of such engines 



