WILD GOOSE SHOOTING. 285 



navigates the bay of Tees in a yacht which resembles 

 nothing so much as a pig-trough. Some men would 

 imagine, crawling on all fours, through a wilderness 

 of sludge, only fit for a Norfolk islander ; some think 

 it capital fun, and follow it on the " oozes," as the 

 scavengers' continents are professionally called. A gal- 

 lant colonel, who has written on this amusement, con 

 amore, falls to loggerheads with those who don't or 

 can't like it as much as himself, and calls them dan- 

 dies, and other hard names. He tells you, " the 

 usual way of sallying forth, for this purpose (that is to 

 say, for wild f fowl shooting), is to drive to an inn, on 

 the coast, call the waiter, who recommends an honest 

 boatman, for whom the boots is immediately dispatched. 

 On his arrival, he sees how eager you are to set sail, 

 fixes his price accordingly, shews you thousands of 

 birds where he knows a boat can never get at them ; 

 obliges you with a few of his own killing, at double 

 their value ; and your day ends with a ten pound 

 bill, and, perhaps, bagging a couple of sea-gulls." 



This do n't look promising, and yet the best way 

 for the young aspirant after this high flavoured gun- 

 ning, is really to put himself into the hands of some 

 professor of the science. This individual will, at all 

 events, equip him for the same, with the thousand 

 appliances necessary for the craft, and this is nine- 

 tenths of the battle. It is not any part of our design 

 in these pages to teach " the young idea how to shoot" 

 wild-fowl in the preserves of old Neptune ; we dare 

 not do so in a work professing to deal with recrea 



