88 BROADLAND SPORT 



sheer about, impelled by the tide, as may prove desirable. 

 Loading the heavy shoulder guns, also our soothing pipes, 

 we lie low and await the issue of events. Some, perhaps, 

 indulge in the gentle art of fishing to while away the time 

 between the nights of the fowl, for, similar to partridge 

 driving in a sparsely -stocked country, there are not only 

 certain periodical intervals of waiting, but there is also the 

 glorious uncertainty of their coming over your stand as the 

 fortunate gun. Our men placed in position, the driving 

 launches or other craft used for a similar purpose commence 

 their part of the work ; making a big circuit, they get on the 

 far side of the birds, and then commence such eccentric move- 

 ments as to raise suspicion, causing the birds to rise in 

 detachments and work over the line of boats, who take 

 their toll accordingly. These tactics are repeated again 

 and again, until the birds become too knowing for their 

 persevering would-be destroyers. 



If the fickle goddess Fortune turns her countenance upon 

 the sportsmen, good fun sometimes results, the bag, however, 

 consisting mostly of hard fowl and scoters, the latter worthless 

 for consumption and the former not so very tempting, which 

 rather mars one's enjoyment of the sport ; for where is the 

 pleasure in killing that which is harmless and unfit for food ? 

 or what sport can one find in killing for the sake of killing 

 only ? But then, on the other hand, although a refined palate 

 objects to the fishy and oleaginous flavour of a tough old 

 " mussel duck," there are many people in the great Metropolis 

 who by no means turn up their noses thereat, and finding that 

 that great vortex for the receipt of game namely, Leadenhall 

 Market will always dispose of them, the objection grounded 

 on killing for killing's sake is overcome, and on reconsideration 

 the fun does not seem " so dusty " after all. Again, the birds 

 are by no means easy to " double up," especially if one is un- 

 accustomed to shoot from a boat, and that boat on the sea, and 

 when they are " doubled up " it is far from being the last of 

 them ; they must be gathered, and if one succeeds in bagging 

 three only from every five knocked down it is indeed fortunate. 



