THE SNIPE-BILLED GODWIT. 397 
tide had turned to rise. I was much averse to the man 
setting out of the boat to fetch the bird, but the others 
seemed to think the mud just there was safe, and it certainly 
was, so far that the mandid not sink higher than his knees, 
and would have reached the bird safely; but it fluttered a 
few yards further on his approach, and thus led him plunging 
and labouring on, till in a moment, to my horror, he sank up 
to his waist. He had come suddenly on a spring or percolation 
of water, which rendered the mud perfectly quick or semi-fluid. 
His ghastly look, as he writhed round towards us, in a vain 
attempt to reach the boat, I shall never forget to the last day 
of my life. The men with me were fishermen of those parts, 
and pretty well accustomed to accidents of the kind ; but 
even they seemed to think this a bad case. They shouted to 
the sinking man to keep perfectly still, and with strenuous efforts 
we managed to pole and push the dmgey to within three yards 
of him. They then threw the large steering oar and a spare 
bamboo sideways over and beyond the man, and on these 
rested another bamboo, the near end of which was over the 
dingeys gunnel. On this bamboo the man rested by his arms 
and chest, and ceased to sink deeper. As the tide rose we 
drifted near enough to touch him; but all our efforts were 
unequal to extricate him from the mud, and as the water began 
to mount to his shoulders I was in unspeakable dread of 
what would follow in five minutes more if we could not get 
help. Happily, the young flood was bringing up, as usual, a 
perfect fleet of boats, hastening to the various market towns 
up the Roopnarain; and after much shouting and offers of 
‘ bucksheesh’ two boats were induced to come to our assistance, 
and by crowding their beaks or prows together with ours, 
four or five men were able to grasp the unfortunate fellow and 
regularly “man-handle” him out, guztte pour le peur. But what 
peur ! Of all the ghastly deaths that imagination can conjure 
up, sure none can be so horrible as smothering, by inches, in 
the mud! It made me think then, and often years afterwards, 
what an exquisite luxury, did we but appreciate it, is that of 
simply breathing !” 
This treacherous character of mud banks is a very real and 
ever present danger, and the not-unheard-of practice amongst 
some European sportsmen, of compelling their boatmen, v2 ez¢ 
armis, to retrieve wounded birds off mud-banks, cannot be 
too strongly deprecated. In one instance, to my knowledge, 
it resulted in the loss of two lives. 
In zo case, no matter how thin the mud appears in the place 
first tried, should any man be allowed to plunge into one of 
these banks without a good long thick bamboo in his hands. 
Not only on the coast, but in many of the larger rivers 
hundreds of miles from the sea, most dangerous du/-duls or 
quick sands occur; indeed are in the Ganges most common, 
