SHOOTING DUCKS ON LAKE MAGGIORE. 135 



village called Laveno, and having spent some weeks 

 there fishing, I found that the lake was, during the 

 autumn and winter months, swarming with wild fowl. 

 I had my Constance-made punt, which was a fairly 

 good one for duck shooting, but I had no gun at 

 least, no punt gun, and a gunning-punt without a gun 

 is as useless as a gun without a punt, and very much 

 as useful for wildfowl shooting as a pump would be 

 without a handle. What was I to do ? There were 

 lots of ducks then, and in winter there would be no 

 end of them. A gunning-punt, lots of ducks, and no 

 gun ! The affair was too serious to be borne, so, after 

 having passed some sleepless nights, I made up my 

 mind, coute q^n coute, to try and get one from England. 

 This, to cut matters short, after much writing and 

 scheming, I did, and I got a letter to say that a 

 gunning-punt and gun had left Plymouth for Genoa 

 by a sailing vessel, which, when it had arrived at 

 Genoa, was forwarded to me to Belgirate, where I 

 was then living, having left Laveno, which was on 

 the Austrian side of the lake, and Belgirate on the 

 Piedmontese side. 



I had no end of trouble to get the Piedmontese 

 authorities to allow me to put my gun in the punt. 

 What could I want with such a piece of artillery ? 



