20 KAMBLES AFTER SPOUT. 



As I lay hold of the trigger,, a small wavelet comes ta 

 meet us ; just before it reaches us I give a shrill whistle 

 — there is a dead silence instantaneously ; the ripple at 

 the same instant just lifts up the prow of the punt, and 

 away goes the ten ounces of shot into the mass of fowl,, 

 literally making a lane clean through them! "Well 

 done, young' un ; blessed if I could have done it much 

 better myseP." As for me, I stood up in the punt to 

 the imminent hazard of its occupants, and huzzaed until 

 Dan thought I was gone stark staring mad, and I believe 

 would have knocked me down with an oar in another 

 minute. The cripples afforded us another hour's sport ; 

 there being lots of water by this time, they dived in all 

 directions, and you have to sit uncommonly still in a 

 punt. When we had collected all our spoil, we counted 

 out twenty-nine wigeon, three spoonbills, and three 

 mallard ; and I have no doubt we left half a dozen lively 

 cripples for the '^^ poppers" on the morrow. As fowl 

 were then selling at three shillings a couple, this shot 

 was worth at least fifty shillings to Dan. We now 

 emptied the flat bottle, lit up, and ran back with the 

 breeze to the pier in no time. 



I have endeavoured to give, as far as I am able, some 

 idea of what duck shooting is like as practised at Poole. 

 Of all kinds of shooting which I am aware of, shooting 

 from a punt is the most difficult. An amateur may go in 

 the very pick of the weather, and, though he is a first- 

 rate shot, he will not touch a fowl with a punt gun. This 

 kind of shooting is generally looked down on as un- 

 sportsmanlike and mere butchery, but I can assure my 

 readers that, like grouse driving, it is only condemned 

 by persons entirely ignorant of the matter. Few gentle-- 

 men know anything about it, they being almost invariably 



