144 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



'- 

 taking flight for the rice-grounds. I got almost 



aboard of them, and letting drive at them just as 

 they were getting their wings open to fly I cut a 

 lane right through them, and picked up twenty- eight, 

 wounding of course half as many more, which it 

 was useless to attempt to follow, as the nights in 

 Italy get dark at once, and directly it begins to be 

 dark the evening closes in like shutting up a book. 

 Of course, as my punt used to be drawn up on the 

 shore it soon became an object of admiration, and 

 a priest, who was a very clever fellow, set his wits 

 to work to copy it, which I found after I had left 

 he had done very well. 



I made up my mind to go from Milan to Rome, 

 and try my luck in the Pontine Marshes. So I sold 

 my gun and punt to a Count Castelbarco, who lived 

 on the Austrian side of the lake, went back to Milan, 

 packed the big yellow coach once more, and after 

 some adventures and crossing sundry rivers, which 

 was by no means a pleasant operation, as the bridges 

 had in one or two places been demolished by heavy 

 floods, we at last found ourselves at Rome. 



