P UNT SHOOTING. 1 1 1 



and when the storm abated the punt was rowed 

 round, hung up to the davits, and we retraced our 

 steps to Inverness, feeling somewhat glad that we had 

 not been swamped, for it all but came to that. And 

 thus I think I may fairly say that it was a " cold and 

 dangerous pastime." The Italians have a saying, 

 which is, "Nessun rosa senza spina " ( " There is no 

 rose without a thorn "), which I conclude means, 

 everything has some drawback. 



I must now introduce you to an amusing accident 

 which happened to me. Having gone some distance 

 up the Beauley Firth, we let go the yacht's anchor, 

 and I and my man got into the punt, and proceeded 

 on our way to where we heard some widgeon. They 

 were a long way up, but we could hear them " all of a 

 charm" a gunner's term for widgeon on the feed, 

 with no cause for any alarm about them. We occa- 

 sionally stopped and listened, for we had heard some 

 seals making a desperate and unearthly kind of noise. 

 All of a sudden I thought I heard ducks splashing 

 about and washing, and then quietly feeding on the 

 shore, not a long way off. " Why, surely," I said, in 

 the lowest of whispers, " those must be ducks feed- 

 ing inside of us." Accordingly, having made up our 

 minds on this knotty point, we agreed that ducks 



