R. LOFTHOUSE : THE RIVER TEES. 



9 



the marshes and the adjoining land, Moles {Talpa europced) are 

 common, cream-coloured individuals being occasionally met with. 



The sands and mud-fiats of the Tees estuary and the adjoining 

 marshes have always been the resort of vast numbers of wild-fowl, 

 and many very rare birds have at various times been procured here ; 

 their numbers have, however, greatly decreased of late years, owing 

 to the increase of shipping and boating on the river, the reclamation 

 works, and the yearly increasing number of shooters, who take 

 advantage of the reclamation embankments which have been made 

 to intersect the mud-flats, or, as they are locally called, ' slems.' 

 As these banks are formed of slag from the ironworks, small huts are 

 easily formed in them, where a shooter can sit completely concealed, 

 and wait the rising of the tide, when the Waders are compelled to 

 leave and seek refuge in the adjoining marshes, and, of course, have 

 to cross the banks ; at times great numbers are thus shot, both of 

 Waders and Ducks. At various places on the mud-flats may be 

 observed the tops of casks, protruding out of the mud eight or nine 

 inches. These have been put down by wild-fowlers to conceal 

 themselves in (before the slag banks were built). They had to be 

 approached on mud-pattens, or flat pieces of wood fixed to the boots, 

 to prevent sinking into the mud. The casks had to be baled out 

 every time they were used, not a very pleasant proceeding on a frosty 

 day in winter ; nor would they form a very comfortable waiting place 

 when they were baled out. Curious experiences are related by some 

 old wild-fowlers, who in former years were in the habit of using these 

 casks. I have heard of one man who, after baling out his cask, was 

 in the act of lowering himself into it when he accidentally caught 

 the trigger of his gun with his foot, and had his hand shattered. 

 The wild-fowlers frequenting the Tees at the present time are chiefly 

 working men from Middlesbrough, and the guns they carry are a 

 study in themselves, every conceivable kind of weapon being brought 

 into requisition, from the modern breech-loader to adaptations of the 

 flint and steel guns of our forefathers ; the greater number are single 

 muzzle-loaders. Some have old duck guns, such as were formerly 

 used in the fen districts, fully six feet long over the stock, and almost 

 as heavy as a punt gun. Some of these guns will kill at very long 

 distances. One man I have met carries a double-barrelled 'Joe 

 Manton,' which has been a very expensive gun in its day, and 

 formerly belonged to Wynyard. Punt guns are also still used on the 

 river, and, I understand, were much more frequently so formerly, 

 when the river was periodically visited by wild-fowlers from Lincoln- 

 shire and other places, who usually took up their quarters on the 

 river for some time. 



Jan. 1887. 



