376 
DUCK-SHOOTING. 
the fowler may slip and slide in the best way he can, or 
(were it not for his mud-pattens, flat square pieces of hoard 
tied to the feet,) through which he might sink up to the 
middle waist. 
On one of these expeditions, a Duck- shooter, in Hampshire, 
met with a perilous adventure. Mounted on his mud-pat- 
tens, he was traversing one of these oozy plains, and being 
intent only on his game, suddenly found the water rising with 
the tide. Aware of his danger, he looked round, but his 
retreat was already cut off ; he was already surrounded with 
the flowing sea, and death stared him in the face. But in 
this desperate situation his presence of mind remained, and 
an idea struck him, which might yet be the means of his 
preservation. He gazed round to see if any part of this mud 
desert was higher than the rest; and observing a small 
portion still a foot or two above the water, he hastened to- 
wards it ; and when there, striking the barrel of his long gun 
deep into the ooze, he resolved to hold fast by it, as a prop 
to secure himself against the bufletings of the waves, which 
were breaking angrily around him, and had now reached his 
feet ; and at the same time as an anchor, to which he might 
cling, and not be carried away by the current of the flowing 
or ebbing tide ; or, at all events, that if it was to be his sad 
fate to perish, his body might be found by those friends who 
might venture out to search for him. Well acquainted with 
the usual rise of the tide, he had every reason to suppose that 
it would not reach above his middle, and that if he could 
endure the cold of six hours’ immersion, he might be saved. 
Unfortunately, however, he had not taken into account the 
state of the wind, or some other causes, which had not only 
brought the waters up more rapidly than usual, but would 
also add to their height. Accordingly, having first felt the 
chill and deadly sensation of ripple after ripple, now covering 
his feet, then bathing him knee-deep, and then advancing 
beyond his waist, he was horror-struck at finding, that in- 
stead of receding, it still crept upwards, and had reached his 
shoulders; the spray burst over his head; upon another minute’s 
