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possible after him ; and he showed again at about seventy yards off. My gun, a very heavy, long- 

 barrelled double, 10 bore, with No. 2 green cartridge, was at my shoulder, full cock. For a 

 wonder the bird appeared exactly where I expected; the very second the crown of its head 

 showed on the surface, I pulled the trigger, and yet I was too late ; the shot only struck the 

 troubled water where it had disappeared. 



" Then we pulled an incredible time, full five minutes I am sure, before he again appeared ; 

 and then he turned up some 100 yards off, on the port bow. I instantly fired, not with any 

 prospect of touching him, but to make him dive and so fatigue himself. We were within seventy 

 yards of him when he next rose ; and he was not suffered to keep his head one second above 

 water. Next time, I still looking out in front, he popped his head up close behind the boat ; and 

 before I could turn to fire (one has to be judgmatical in kittle crafts like these) he was off. We 

 ' reversed the engines,' and went back on our track as hard as we could go ; but when he rose 

 he was a good hundred yards ahead ; he got the contents of a barrel sent after him promptly ; 

 and the men making a tremendous spurt (on which he had not calculated), he rose next time at 

 about fifty yards, and, quick as he was, could not quite escape the shot. Next time he was a 

 little further ; but he did not dive so quickly, and I distinctly saw the shot catch him. We pulled 

 up sharply ; but he had turned under water, and when he next showed up he was more than a 

 hundred yards astern. I fired as usual ; but he did not dive. This was a good sign, and showed 

 he was at least a little out of breath ; when we were about seventy yards off, he again dived, and 

 came up at about thirty yards off us, broad on the quarter, but showed himself only for one second, 

 being out of sight again before the shot could reach him. Hard as the men pulled (we had had 

 to turn the boat), he was sixty yards at least ahead of us when he rose ; but this time he was 

 unable to get under again quick enough, and one shot caught him in the neck, and there he 

 floated dead at last. I was greatly delighted ; and yet it gave one a kind of pang to see his lovely 

 white satin breast upturned, rising and sinking slowly in the bright sunlight on the soft green 

 swells. I almost wished I had not been quite so successful ; or, rather, what I exactly wished was, 

 that I could have got my specimen and he remained alive and jolly all the same. Two of the 

 birds procured to-day fell to the first shot; most of the rest entailed long chases: one took 

 fourteen shots to bring him to bag ; two we lost after much labour, certainly when partly tired 

 out, owing to their getting in amongst others and our then following the wrong birds, which, of 

 course, were quite fresh. One bird, certainly wounded, disappeared ; it dived, and never again 

 rose to the surface before or behind, on one side or the other ; and I can only conceive that some 

 shark, of which there are great numbers here (indeed sharks' fins exported to China are the most 

 important staple of the Gwader trade), must have picked it up. 



" No kind of sport probably requires such undivided attention, such quickness of eye, and 

 such rapidity of firing ; and though I bagged only eight birds in several hours of hard fagging, I 

 must have fired at least eighty shots, and as any one of at least half of these might have been 

 successful, the excitement was maintained throughout, the more so that the moment one bird 

 was secured another was at hand, turn on whichever side you would ; and when to this is added 

 the bright sun, the clear water, the delicious sea-air, the constant rapid pursuit, and all the 

 surroundings of ' sea and cliff and silver strands,' I submit that I have said enough to justify my 

 penchant for Grebe-hunts." 



