CANOE FOR WILD-DUCK SHOOTING. 309 



of heavy artillery, darkening the air as they circle and wheel 

 above in such numbers as must be seen to be realised. Armed 

 with a duck-gun and a double 12-bore, capable of sustaining 

 a charge of three and a-half to four drams of powder, I could 

 have filled before noon a good-sized canoe to its gunwale had 

 I chosen to do so ; but I preferred to content myself with 

 three or four couple of geese, a brace or two of the "koolung" 

 crane, an odd flamingo or two for their beautiful feathers, a 

 dozen or two of golden plover, and lastly and chiefly, with 

 thirty or forty ducks and teal of at least half a score of 

 varieties. Starting about sunrise on a December or January 

 morning, when a light mist hangs over the water, and the 

 cool north breeze gently ruffles its surface, the gunner may 

 occasionally land to stretch his legs and vary his sport by 

 looking up the birds at feed in the fields ; but the greater 

 part of his bag will be made from his canoe, seated in which 

 he will obtain abundance of long shots " into the brown " 

 with his duck-gun, besides single and double ones at solitary 

 birds and flights whirling overhead in alarm and confusion. 



There is a kind of canoe from sixteen to twenty feet in 

 length, with a beam of three and a-half at the broadest part, 

 which is the most suitable for this sport. These are in 

 common use in Eastern Bengal in particular, and are very 

 graceful in form, tapering away in beautiful lines to a point at 

 each end buoyant, easily worked, and capable of floating in 

 less than a foot of water. A light, elastic, and yet strong deck 

 is formed of split bamboos fastened together with cane or 

 twine, in pieces about a yard in length, which are laid down a 

 few inches below the gunwales. On this moveable deck, a 

 round stool of native manufacture being placed about seven 

 feet from the bows, and the gunner seated upon it with his 

 guns and ammunition before him, shots can be fired to the 

 front and both sides with ease, and without disturbing the 

 balance of his craft. A bush or a bundle of grass is some- 

 times fixed on the bows as a sort of screen, but it rarely 

 answers any useful purpose, since it cannot conceal those in 

 the boat; and if the birds are not disposed to permit its 



