Anecdotes of Former Days 237 



Often he had to wait many hours at night for a shot, 

 quite unable to see sufficiently clearly to make out where- 

 abouts the geese were, although well within distance all the 

 time, and listening to their splashing and playing in the 

 water not many yards from him. The merest glimmer of 

 light for a second or two was quite sufficient for him 

 to be able to see the direction, and, though the darkness 

 closed in again immediately, he made most successful 

 shots, even with such precarious opportunities. On one 

 occasion he even " went one better," for, after waiting 

 till past midnight without the slightest lifting of the 

 murky darkness, he fired at length in despair, and made 

 one of the most successful shots in his life. The next 

 morning he picked up nine dead Bean geese, all slain 

 at that single shot with a shoulder gun, and heard 

 besides of one or two more being caught wounded on 

 the neighbouring farms. A few feathers from each goose, 

 strung in tufts on a string, have hung in his " sanctum " 

 ever since to signalise that memorable night. 



On another occasion Mr. Simpson went fast asleep 

 during his long night watch, and, on waking up, found 

 himself covered by a fall of snow with the geese close 

 to him, when, snatching up his gun, he succeeded in 

 securing seven of them at one shot. At other times he 

 slew five geese at one discharge ; and fourteen mallard 

 (of which, curiously, seven were drakes and seven were 

 ducks), after strenuous crawling to approach the birds 

 through rough heather, reeds, and swamp. He had two 

 five-bore guns that he used for this work, one a single 

 and the other a double-barrel. The single carried 10 drs. 

 of powder and 5 oz. of shot, S.S.G., 17 shot corns going 

 to the oz. The double gun was loaded with half the 



