THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
keep the pan filled, though often the price is against their being used on 
a large scale. An excellent contrivance planned by Mr Wormald has the 
merit of costing little, but it needs replenishing from time to time, one 
filling lasting about a fortnight; it has for some years been in use 
on the Cross Cliff Moor, where it has given every satisfaction. It is 
supplied by Dickson, Lawrence Street, York, at the price of Is. lid., a 
small piece of india-rubber tubing being required in addition. When one or 
two hundred fountains have to be replenished some contrivance is needed 
for conveying the water, and nothing is better adapted to this purpose 
than the pack-saddle used by the water-carriers of Spain, which can be 
borne by any pony or donkey. It holds either the Spanish water -vessels, 
or the cans in use for carrying milk on a man’s back in the West Yorkshire 
mountains, two being placed on each side of the saddle. 
When runnels are made they should be very shallow, with sloping sides, 
to obviate the danger of young birds getting drowned. On many moors 
a considerable area is encroached upon by bracken, which becomes use- 
less, or nearly so, for nesting, though in very hot weather grouse freely 
resort there on account of the welcome shade from the powerful rays of 
the sun. It can, however, be extirpated with attention, for if cut closely 
in the spring before the fronds have finally uncurled, and again later in 
the summer when fresh growth has sprung up, in the course of a very 
few years it will entirely disappear. 
Drainage . — On most moors there are tracts which are constantly wet, a pan 
of clay underlying the top layer of peat, and there the heather gives place to 
water -loving plants. Frequently such places can be drained to advantage, 
although grouse often select a dry little spot in such localities for a nest, but 
danger of destruction from a sudden flooding is ever present, either from 
a thunder storm, or from an excessively wet period setting in, which is 
often fatal to eggs and chicks. Grouse, especially old cocks, are partial 
to such spots, uncongenial as they seem, for their night quarters, though, 
of course, in very limited numbers, and the reason appears to be that they 
And themselves safe there from an attack by four-footed vermin, which 
cannot easily steal upon them unawares, under cover of the darkness. 
But this is no reason for leaving such places undrained if the cost of doing 
so does not seem prohibitive. Drains should be shallow ones, a spit deep, 
a spit’s width at the bottom, and two at the top, with the sides carefully 
sloped, and the excavated earth thrown clear away to prevent any danger 
of obstruction from its falling in again, being very good rules to follow. 
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