3o6 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



the snipe-shooter. The ground over which he 

 shot is thus described : — 



"A few miles from Berwick's Bay there enters 

 from the west the Bayou Teche, loveliest of 

 southern streams, navigable for more than lOO 

 miles, preserving at all seasons an equal depth and 

 breadth ; so gentle in its flow that it might be 

 taken for a canal, did not the charming and grace- 

 ful curves by which it separates the undulating 

 prairies of Attakapas from the alluvium of the 

 Atchafalaga, mark it as a work of nature. The 

 Teche waters the parishes of St Mary, New Iberia, 

 St Martin, Lafayette, and St Landry — the Atta- 

 kapas home of the Acadians." 



Such was the condition of the country as Mr 

 Pringle found it in 1867, and as it continued for the 

 first fifteen or sixteen years of his shooting. It 

 was, however, quite changed in later years by the 

 extension of the New Orleans and Opelousas Rail- 

 way, now called the Southern Pacific, from Berwick's 

 Bay, its then terminus, to Franklin, eight miles 

 from his shooting-box (which he called " The 

 Snipery "), and afterwards to San Francisco. Then 

 the prairies and marshes, which previously had 

 been grazed over by herds of cattle, affording 

 excellent feeding-ground for snipe, were gradually 

 fenced, drained, and tilled, and the snipe-grounds 

 over which he used to shoot were gradually cur- 

 tailed, and eventually entirely destroyed. 



His favourite ground consisted of low-lying 

 marshes, with a growth of green aquatic weed, 

 which he called " blue iris," bearing- a beautiful blue 



