SHOOTING 331 



my dog creeping after me, quite as miicli interested 

 as I was myself, and showing most wonderful intelli- 

 gence in avoiding stepping on any little pieces of 

 thin ice or anything that would make a noise ; then 

 the careful look over the bank, and if the stalk had 

 been successful, the rapid double shot at the ducks, 

 as they rose with a rush, followed by the drop of 

 killed or wounded, if the shot had been lucky, 

 and the subsequent hunt after the cripples, if unfor- 

 tunately there were any, for nothing on earth is so 

 difficult to get as a wounded duck. The way they 

 will dive, and the time they can keep under water, 

 only rising and putting the tip of their beak up to 

 get air, and the extraordinary places they get into, 

 will puzzle the best retriever, and weary out his 

 master's patience, unless he has a very large stock 

 ef that, or obstinacy, in his composition. But very 

 often, when I peered cautiously over the bank, the 

 ducks could just be seen swimming away down a 

 further reach of the ditch, making for the larger 

 stream below, and then it was a race as to which 

 should get there first, as the cunning birds knew as 

 well as I did that if they once got there, and into 

 the reed-beds, they were comparatively safe. It 

 was no joke, running as hard as you could go, in a 

 stooping position, for several hundred yards ; and 

 often they would escape me, an unfortunate step on 



