( 193 ) 



He immediately puts on his mud-pattens*, 

 ignorant yet of his fuccefs, and goes groping 

 about in the dark, happy if he have a little 

 ftar-light, in queft of his booty, picking up 



perhaps a dozen, and perhaps not one. So 



hardly does the poor fowler earn a few Ihil- 

 lings ; expofed, in an open boat, during a 

 folitary winter-night, to the weather as it 

 comes, rain, hail, or fnow, on a bleak coaft, 

 a league perhaps from the beach, and often in 

 danger, without great care, of being fixed in 

 the mud ; where he would become an inevi^ 

 table prey to the returning tide. I have heard 

 one of thefe poor fellows fay, he never takes a 

 dog with him on thefe expeditions, becaufe no 

 dog could bear the cold, which he is obliged 



to fuffer. After all, perhaps others enjoy 



more from his labours, than he himfelf does ; 

 for it often happens, that the tide, next day, 

 throws, on different parts of the fliore, many 

 of the birds, which he had killed, but could 

 not find in the night. 



This hazardous occupation once led an un- 

 happy fowler into a cafe of ftill greater dillrefs. 



* Mud pattens are flat pieces of board, which the fowler 

 ties to his feet, that he may not fiuk in the mud. 



VOL. II. P In 



