240 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



it may be said that certain people are trying to alter 

 it. I have seen some account of this in the pubHc 

 papers ; but all I can say is, that such a state of 

 things would have been considered utterly impossible 

 in the days when I fowled on and by the tide. In 

 fact, at that time it would have been an impossibility 

 for one man to deny another the rights of the 

 fore-shores, as these rights had been in full use for 

 a period which could not be reckoned, beyond the 

 memories of the oldest men. 



As the Lord of the Fore-shores had a right to fix 

 notice-boards on his own behalf, there must have 

 been also other common rights which belonged to 

 the people on the fore-shores, and certain matters 

 " pertaining thereto " which were their own, or they 

 would not have been allowed to exercise such rights 

 for so long a period. The more so as the Lords of 

 Manors and Fore-shores in past times were apt to 

 assert the difference between their rights and views 

 of what they thought to be their rights, and the 

 rights and opinions of others, in a somewhat high- 

 handed manner. 



This little digression over, let us return to our 

 Scoters, or Black Ducks ; there they are, diving and 

 chasing each other. It is bitterly cold, and the sea 

 is quite calm, as smooth as a mill-pond. The birds 

 appear to be within shot, but it would be a delusion 

 to think them so ; a rifle might reach them, but they 

 are out of all duck-gun range ; and this is owing to 

 the intensely dry and rarefied state of the air. As 

 to the sky above, it is of such a hard, steely blue 



