236 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
#45 and £10; but we had an offer once, when ill-luck had 
continually attended one of these poor fellows, of a punt, with 
gun, just as they floated, for 3os. 
In conclusion, we leave further expenses for the intending 
fowler himself to think over before taking up the sport, and 
at the same time hope that our rough notes may be found 
useful. We should all bear in mind that true sport is pleasant 
to a sportsman, and a sportsman is a man who sets out for 
sport, and not with the vulgar notion of ‘‘what there is to 
get.” Big bags do not always count alone as sport, for 
even on the blankest days there is much to interest and 
please the thorough man, who chooses to be afloat on the 
desolate wilds which wildfowl love so much to haunt. Be 
the bag ever so large, if it has not been made in a sports- 
manlike manner, there cannot have been any sport. Non- 
sport is painful to a real sportsman, equally so as the reverse 
applies. We said ‘‘thorough man.” Here we might further 
add to this (though, maybe, out of place) that unless a man 
is thoroughly sound physically, it is not wise for him to go 
punting. It tests the physique of the strongest constitutions, 
though we do not say it harms them. We feel inclined to 
state that it tends further to strengthen them, provided care 
is taken with regard to clothing, etc., which is the main point 
in warding off rheumatism either at the time, or in years to 
come. Although men who have not enjoyed the best of 
health have pursued wildfowling for years without any disastrous 
results, we advise those who do not honestly feel equal to the 
job to leave such hard and rough tasks as punting to others, 
for a man who is not of the strongest or soundest make is apt 
at any moment to collapse under the strain that this sport may 
give rise to. We may rather err when we say strong. A man 
need not be a Hercules before he can go wildfowling—far from 
it; yet, advisedly, he should be ‘‘sound” in every way—a 
good chest, and all other organs up to standard, and of fair 
