i8o SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



ground. The friend's house that I used to stay at 

 was nearly a mile from the edge of the marsh, and 

 many is the time that, whilst sitting at breakfast, we 

 have heard the roar of their wings as they rose up 

 together ; for they would frequently do this from no 

 apparent cause, and would fly in a string fully a 

 mile long to some other and more distant part of 

 the marsh. There they would again sit motionless 

 till night time. 



This wild goose chase, or shooting, depended much 

 on the state of the tides, and as it used to take place 

 at night, a good deal of precaution was necessary, 

 because, from the land being intersected with ditches, 

 or gutters, of from six to eight or ten feet wide, and 

 from four to six feet deep, all of which ran into what 

 we used to call the big gutter, which was double 

 or treble the size, there was every possibility of 

 one's being cut off from the shore, if one was not 

 on the shore side of the said gutters by a certain 

 time. For there was no shelter, no trees to climb 

 into, nor no nothing to prevent one's being 

 surrounded by the tide and drowned. 



We used generally to go out in a party of four 

 or five, and the eldest of my 'cousins used to take 

 the command, or management, or what in these days 



