WILDFOWL AND WILDFOWLING 
remained but for W. to plunge a mile or more through rotten ooze to 
the main shore; then to walk three miles (in sea -boots) to a point where 
a dogcart could be hired, and lastly to drive seven miles more. 
“Meanwhile I was having my own troubles. A sea breeze blew up against 
the tide, causing a nasty choppy sea, and, being short handed, I could 
not safely keep the punt in tow astern ; shipped a lot of wave, and in 
trying to weather a spit, got half water-logged, only reaching harbour 
an hour after dark with three inches of water in the hold, ammunition 
locker flooded, and wet as a drowned rat. It was past seven ere I got 
under a roof, and near midnight ere W. rejoined.” 
Those three cripples were over -dearly bought ! 
The examples above given refer (with but two or three exceptions), 
to the use of a comparatively small punt -gun carrying only nine ounces 
of shot, and chiefly employed against small quantities of fowl. They are 
not intended, nor do they give any adequate idea of the power and effect 
of the monster wildfowl artillery of the present day — say double guns 
carrying two and a half pounds of shot and upwards. Of such I have had 
no personal experience whatever, my heaviest charge never having ex- 
ceeded sixteen ounces. It seems necessary, therefore, in order to complete 
this survey, to quote a few examples from the published records of other 
fowlers. 
Col. Hawker’s diary records the following : 
l 53 wigeon ^ 
2 mallards }^56 at one shot (noon). 
1 coot ) 
30 wigeon at another shot (night). 
(Total brought in after eighteen hours’ work : 
101 wigeon, 4 mallards, 6 plovers, etc.). 
4 whoopers (out of 5) at one shot. 
Hawker, during the season of 1829, killed 602 wildfowl in eight weeks, 
of which 433 were wigeon, 97 geese, 5 wild swans, etc.; 1838 was another 
of the Colonel’s best seasons : 
1838, Jan. 20. 42 wigeon and 9 geese at one shot. 
49 geese and 2 swans in four shots ; best, 29 geese. 
21 geese at one shot. 
57 geese in three shots: 20, 3, and 34. 
10 geese and 8 swans in three shots. 
1829,Jan.21. 
1829, Jan. 22. 
1838, Jan. 27. 
1838, Jan. 31. 
1838, Feb. 3. 
1838, Feb. 5. 
405 
