THE BRENT GOOSE. 151 
I recommend—for reasons why, too long here to set 
forward,—see my Field Sports, vol. IL., p. 119—the use of 
two single guns of 16 lbs. weight, 42 inch barrels and 5 
guage, in preference to any double-barrel guns on earth 
for this shooting. They should be made without ribs, 
pipes or ramrods—a loose loading-rod, which is a clean- 
ing-rod also, lying in the boat when in use, being adopted 
as a substitute. This should be made with a joint at ex- 
actly the léngth of the gun-barrel, so that it can be car- 
ried within it when travelling ; the upper joint about 6 
inches in length, screwing into the other, and fitted with 
a knot at the top, like a pistol-charger, may be carried in 
the pocket when in locomotion. Such a gun will carry 
402. of BB, or twenty-five buck-shot, without jar or recoil ; 
use equal measures of shot and Curtis and Harvey’s duck- 
ing powder, to be procured of Brough, Fulton-street} 
New York—and coarse felt punched wadding, and you 
will do your work at eighty, ay, by’r lady! or one hun- 
dred yards, and you will not repent you of following my 
counsel. 
The murderous modes, which I have so strongly repro- 
bated, and to which I shall devote but a few words, are, 
first, the anchoring batteries, as they are called, shallow 
coffin-like boxes, supported by wide horizontal brims 
lying level on the surface of the water, covered with 
sand and shells, and exactly resembling a bit of bare shoal, 
upon the shallows whereon the fowl feed. Decoys are 
placed around, and an attendant waits in a skiff to secure 
