392 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



formed a circular cut de sac. The netting was about four feet in height, of 

 some three-inch mesh, and round the cul de sac was double. The uprights 

 which carried it were strengthened by spurs. 



Long before we could see the boats, for the mist had thickened, we 

 could hear shouting and the cries of the geese. But after a bit first one 

 and then another boat came into view. On the men came, but very slowly ; 

 now pulling across a creek, now pushing the ' arnoh ' over a bit of mud or 

 hauling it over a sand-ridge, sometimes leaving it altogether and running 

 off to head the geese. So slowly they came zig-zagging along. 



By this time we could see geese by thousands through the mist. I 

 could even distinguish the short trumpet-note of the Brent among the 

 general babel. It was indeed a babel. How to convey to you any idea of 

 it I do not know. If you can imagine many hundred farmyard geese, and 

 many thousand cornets all sounding together and crowded on by a handful 

 of screaming wild men — if you can imagine this, then you are not far off 

 the mark. 



Nearer they came and nearer, the middle a dense solid mass of geese, 

 the sides a constant stream of parties, large or small, running away like 

 lamplighters for all that the sleighs might do to stop them. The very 

 earth seemed geese, and for that matter the sky too. For there never was 

 an interval when geese were not rising, and instead of going right away at 

 once, as one would have looked for geese to do, they hung about the spot, 

 circling round and rising higher and higher till they lost themselves in the 

 mist. I could never have believed it possible that so many geese could be 

 had on one small island. 



Exactly at nine o'clock—five hours from the beginning — the advance 

 guard of the swimming geese came round the corner of the creek. It was 

 one solid phalanx of Brent. They seemed to be by far the fastest 

 swimmers. For behind them at a considerable distance followed a smaller 

 lot of Grey Geese, some swimming, some running along the edge. 



Then with one accord nearly all these Grey Geese rose — five hundred 

 perhaps there were. For some little while the geese delayed as though 

 they felt they were getting too much inland, or suspected a trap in front. 

 Then the boats came up from behind, and the geese crowded on. They 

 didn't like going. Sometimes the leading geese would stop and wheel 

 about, heading right into the mass. But the boats came on. Every 

 moment I looked to see the Brent escape by diving, or expected some to 

 rise, for it was plain enough that many were full-winged. Neither of these 

 things they did ; only like a pack of idiots they ' wanked ' and swam along. 



And now the body of Brent was exactly opposite the entrance to the 

 nets, and about them in a half-circle were the boats. Round and round 

 they swam, but refused to leave the water. The boats did not dare close in 

 for fear the geese should break. It was a ticklish moment — the geese 



