SHOOTING DUCKS ON LAKE MAGGIORE. 143 



coming in strings or flocks of fifty or sixty together 

 for fully half-an-hour. The flocks sometimes seemed 

 as if they never would cease arriving. We were 

 seldom without ducks for dinner, as you may suppose, 

 and when there was an overplus of the article my 

 boatman used to send them to market, getting about 

 tenpence each for them. A couple of ducks that had 

 been fed on rice, and a bottle of the red wine of the 

 country, which had a good deal of body in it, made 

 by no means a bad dinner. 



I was for several weeks during the season in Milan, 

 but I managed to kill and bring home six hundred 

 and forty-eight ducks and mallards. No teal, or 

 widgeon, or any other kind of duck ever appeared 

 on the lake. I saw one wild-goose amongst the large 

 flock of ducks one day, but he soon went off, and I 

 never saw him again. 



My gun and punt were the first that ever were seen 

 on the lake, and had I only had some of Colonel 

 Hawker's sea gunpowder, and a good man from 

 England to work my punt, I believe I should have 

 killed some ducks. 



The heaviest shot I ever made was in returning 

 home one evening, just as it was getting dusk, and 

 the ducks were getting pretty thick together before 



