BOATS AND BOATING. 261 



fish floated past on the strong flood tide. Having placed 

 ready at hand a heavy rifle, and set an anchor-watch, to 

 guard against boarding by some enterprising tiger, I turned 

 in early after dinner, and soon fell asleep, lulled by the 

 lapping of the rushing tide. 



The night passed in perfect quiet, broken only by the 

 dull sound of the breakers upon the sands, the cries of 

 curlews, the clang of wild geese changing their feeding 

 grounds, and the wheezy breathing of porpoises which rolled 

 along with the tide in pursuit of small fish. Day broke 

 chill and misty, with a light air from the sea, so that, 

 although I was up and had taken my early breakfast before 

 sunrise, it was six bells (let us be nautical now) before we 

 stepped into the jolly-boat to row down to some place below, 

 where it might be desirable to land, to pursue on foot the 

 sport fortune had in store for us that day. 



Not knowing exactly what animals might be met 

 with in such a wilderness, rarely visited by human beings, 

 I took the field with a 10-bore rifle, another 12-bore, 

 and a 12-bore gun (all by Westley-Bichards), seven stout 

 fellows, and an ample supply of ammunition and refresh- 

 ments. After coasting along for half a mile, and passing the 

 mouth of a creek up which the tide was swiftly flowing, I 

 landed upon a sandy spit, and leaving two men in the jolly- 

 boat to await our return, I walked slowly and noiselessly 

 on the soft sand, till turning a point of the forest which 

 came down close to the water's brink, I sighted a herd of 

 about a dozen spotted deer a couple of hundred yards ahead, 

 which dashed into the woods before I could bring a barrel 

 to bear upon a stag. The distance being too great for accu- 

 rate shooting, I refrained from firing, and moved on till the 

 sea-shore was reached, and followed it then eastwards. 



The beach consisted first of a line of hard fine sand, 

 and above it of a belt of mixed mud and sand, some thirty 

 or forty yards in breadth ; then a streak of mud overgrown 

 with rushes, low bushes, and sharp stumps and roots of trees, 

 and above that again the dark and silent woods. 



