208 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



in the locality to kill. The owner of this cumbrous 

 weapon, if you exhibit an interest in its history, will take 

 you into the fields and point out a spot where forty years 

 ago he or his immediate ancestor shot four or five wild 

 geese at once, resting the barrel on the branch of a tree 

 in the hedge and sending a quarter of a pound of lead 

 whistling among the flock. The spot the wild geese used 

 to visit in the winter is still remembered, though they come 

 there no more ; drains and cultivation having driven them 

 away from that southern district. In the course of the 

 winter, perhaps, a small flock may be seen at a great height 

 passing over, but they do not alight, and in some years are 

 not observed at all. 



There is a trick sometimes practised by poachers which 

 enables them to make rabbits bolt from their holes without 

 the assistance of a ferret. It is a chemical substance 

 emitting a peculiar odour, and, if placed in the burrows 

 drives the rabbits out. Chemical science, indeed, has been 

 called to the aid of poaching in more ways than one : fish, 

 for instance, are sometimes poisoned, or killed by an ex- 

 plosion of dynamite. These latter practises have, however, 

 not yet come into general use, being principally employed 

 by those only who have had some experience of mining or 

 quarrying. 



There is a saying that an old poacher makes the best 

 gamekeeper, on the principle of setting a thief to catch a 

 thief : a maxim however, of doubtful value, since no other 



