78 BROADLAND SPORT 



and anecdote after anecdote, with quaint experiences and 

 most interesting personal reminiscences, followed one another 

 in quick succession. All branches of estuary shooting were 

 freely discussed and debated from most points of view. 

 The company included men who had had opportunities of 

 wildfowling on nearly every nook and corner of the coastline 

 of England, Ireland and Holland, consequently much valuable 

 information was imparted as the outcome of the gathering, 

 and its termination could not have been regretted more than 

 by those who had been the organisers of it. 



Mr Fielding Harmer, of course, was looked up to as an 

 authority few would dare venture to contradict, and he gave 

 many minute details of the habits of fowl on estuaries, 

 gleaned from personal observation, which, with his consent, 

 found place in our capacious note-book. For over forty years 

 he has made wildfowling his hobby and study, and although 

 seventy years had passed over his head he still punted up the 

 creeks of Breydon Water before the first flush of rosy dawn 

 showed itself upon a wintry sky. 



The experiences of this oldtime gunner assisted more than 

 anything else to extract the opinions of the others, and our 

 roughly-scribbled notes of the views expressed soon assumed 

 bulky proportions. 



After the company had dissolved we sat far into the night 

 arranging, classifying and editing the salient points. 



To dissect a mass of hurriedly-taken notes and place them 

 before a reader in an interesting form is a task which is big 

 in itself, and at the same time puzzles the editor not a little. 

 Therefore, in order that this difficulty may in a measure be 

 overcome, we have divided the discussion into branches of the 

 various phases of sport to be obtained from the estuaries and 

 roadsteads on the East Coast, which in reality form the 

 borders of Broadland. 



PRELIMINARY. 

 Few persons have any clear conception of the amount of 



