BERNACLE SHOOTING ON WHYRILL MARSH. 187 



" Billy Duck," as he was then called, was a Lincoln- 

 shire Fen man, and was, at his old home, known by 

 the name of William Kemp. He was born in the 

 Fens, not far from Boston, was a dapper little fellow 

 to look at, had an eye like a hawk, was as cunning 

 as a weazel, a real sportsman in the duck and widgeon 

 line, was a sort of amphibious animal, and was, I have 

 no doubt, as most Lincolnshire people are supposed to 

 be, web-footed. Billy, from his youth up, had been 

 a gunner. His father was a gunner, and every one 

 of the name of Kemp was a gunner, and so long 

 as the Fens remained they made what is called an 

 honest livelihood by gunning. But, alas for the 

 Kemp family, the Fens were drained, and all the 

 swamps and drains were led or carried into one large 

 sort of canal, which is now called the Forty-Foot. 

 The fowl which used to be there in great numbers 

 began gradually to grow fewer and fewer, and Billy 

 found that his occupation was gone. The ducks, &c., 

 used to come from Holland to the Lincolnshire Fens, 

 but, without swamps and water, they merely came in 

 passage, and did not stop, and, as Billy said, they 

 all seemed to fly westward, and so " I made up my 

 mind to follow them," and this he did, and brought 

 his boat and gun by canals and any other mode of 



