yond the river, is a test of the excellence of the sport. Nor was this all. I got a shot or two (and always in luck) at the flocks of whistling or golden plover, which my man called down or within shot by that imitation of the bird's own call, which every gunner of the fens can accomplish so readily. A wild duck and a couple of teal were crept and bagged; so that by four o'clock, when the sun sank in the west, and with him the light in December, I was well content to cry "Hold, enough!" The day, however, was but begun with the fenman.

There is one, whose dwelling I have noted in poor Chatterton's lines, at the head of this paper, whose whole time is passed upon the water, fishing and fowling, from January to December. The fens can boast of many of these; to whom one may say, in the words of Trinculo to Caliban, "What have we here, a man or a fish?" There was Tom Maddison, who was killed by cholera, when cholera ravaged the fens of Cambridgeshire some ten or twelve years ago; Wilson, who figured in Crowland and Cowbit Wash about the same period; and now my friend with the beard, who looked as if his chin had been unconscious of a razor for six months. Their abodes are self-constructed, of the rudest materials; or, and that not unfrequently, made out of an old sea-boat, and fixed in one of the Droves. It is astonishing to witness the perception of all kinds of fowl by twilight, and at immense distances, by these wild people. Their sense of hearing seems equal to their powers of vision, for they will over and over again give you the signal of approaching fowl, when to our unpractised ears and optics there is nothing but a cloud in the distance, and the sigh of the wind among the reeds. Poor fellows! how little does he who feasts upon the produce of their cold and midnight watch imagine the privations and rudeness of him who toils! "I can get at your man," said a friend of mine, "but how am I to get at his mind?" Not at all, my dear fellow; for he has none. He has a kind of knowledge or instinct, or something approaching, but you must content yourself with such information as his rude speech may give; for, depend upon it, you are not half so puzzled with his ignorance as he is with your intelligence. I once heard Lord Denman, at Huntingdon assizes, address one of the gunners, who was there as a witness against a man for stealing a bow-net-" Apply your mind to the question, my man ;" and then added his lordship, having evidently a doubt upon the subject, "if you have one." Ha, my lord, thought I, put a jumping pole in his hand, a punt under his knees, and, it may be, his old firelock in his hand, and he would puzzle you, and half your bar to boot, to come within a mile of him.

The day was over; the inn was gained, the reckoning settled, and the pony at the door. I left the scene of splendid sport with arrangements to come again on the Friday; but it was freezing even then, and one of the aborigines told me he did not like to see the little white bubbles in the dikes-they were particles of congealed air upon the surface of the water-as they foretold frost. The ride home was not without its charms. The birds were busy in their flight into their feeding grounds; the great guns were constantly

greeting them as they alighted or lowered over the splash; the shepherd's dog was heard to landward; the distant clocks and bells at intervals told of the approach of evening; the labourer's friendly "good night" came every now and then with welcome to the ear, and in a brief space I was at home.

It was a sharp frost that night, and keener still the night following. The snipes and fowl were banished from the Wash; and when once they have taken their flight it is all up with that country for the winter. Next July will bring them and the young birds back, but until then the poor gunner's "occupation 's gone."

It is to repeat a thrice-told tale to offer anything in the way of instruction in snipe shooting to the majority of your readers; but at the same time it is equally true that the "young idea must be taught how to shoot." And, although there is no teacher like experience, it assists the young, confirms the wavering, and assures the skilful to read how things were managed in a day which ended with a bag of nigh upon twenty couple of snipe.

We were under the necessity, at starting, of beating "up wind;" a thing ever to be shunned in snipe-shooting. To obviate, as far as could be, the ill effects of this step, I led over the fields which were barest, taking the chance of the birds alighting, after I had flushed them in the rougher grounds. Arrived at a rough ground, I made such a circuit as brought me to the top (so to speak), and enable me to beat it down wind; that is, to cross the wind, returning at the end of each beat over the beaten ground. By this process, I wormed my way five miles and a half, until I had arrived at such a spot as enabled me, on calculation, to ensure as much work back as time would serve for. Arrived at a dike, I never parted with the gun until after the man who carried the pole had jumped, and imitated the snipe's call; or until after I had called it, in the first instance, keeping guard with all in readiness, if a bird rose, as they frequently will, at one's very feet. I used a single barrel; a double might have been-I will go further, and say, would have been-of more service three or four times; but what one gains by the double is more than counterbalanced by the effect of extra weight upon both arms and legs. If the last ounce weighs the donkey down, the extra pound of iron and of shot tells upon the sportsman at the end of an eight hours' walk. The fen is very unlike the woods or the fields. One often slips an inch or two backwards or forwards for 100 yards together; and what has a heavier strain upon the muscles of the legs than that? Nothing except the continued exertion of repeated pole-work where the dikes are wide and close together; and every fifty yards is followed by a leap of 15 or 20 feet, which soon tells upon both arms and legs, or at any rate is discovered the next morning. The great thing in jumping with a pole is to set it nigh enough to you-to leap, as it were, over it, not on the side; and to be careful that the quant, or crutch at the end, is long enough. There is some danger and far more bodily strength called into action by using a pole with too small a quant. Again, the pole should never be less than fifteen feet in length; should be thickest in the middle, with the top part tapered off rather more

than the bottom, of the best red deal, and without a knot. There is nothing to be named with No. 8 as snipe-shot. Clarke, the gunner, told me he was out with a gentleman on the previous Saturday, who struck every bird; but as he shot with dust-shot (and they had none other there) he literally bagged but a single snipe. I have tried all sizes, 6, 7, and 8; and although when shooting with a double, I have occasionally used No. 6 in the second barrel for long lengths, I think there is nothing in it, and that No. 8 is the best after all.

An hour's walk at any time will tell where the snipes lie. As hares will one day lie on stubble, on the tilts the next, on grass land the day following, and in the quick lines the day after that; so the snipes will be found on the dry warm grasses, or in the splash, by the sides of the dikes, or on the barest feeding grounds, as fancy, or instinct, or the weather sways them. And, strange to say, it is almost next to uselessness to beat for them elsewhere.

A dog, as hath been frequently remarked, is useless, and worse than useless, where snipe are numerous. It is all very well to have a good water-spaniel by the sides of rivers or lakes; but on ground where one can walk up to the bird when he is killed, a dog is not wanted; and if he runs up to his game when the gun goes, it is ten to one but he runs up a couple of snipe also. Besides, if a snipe is not killed dead, he is the best fellow imaginable to tell of his where-about. He is certain, on being approached, to flutter up and cry "Scape," so that there is every chance afforded to pick him

up.

I have been asked repeatedly, "When do you shoot at a snipe?" And I have as invariably answered "As soon as I can." By this it is to be understood that there is hardly such a thing as waiting for a snipe. Now and then a bird will rise at one's foot, and fly across the wind, so that some time is given and opportunity afforded to kill him at any distance; but this is the exception to the general rule; and hence it is that all who excel in snipe-shooting fire as soon as the bird is on the wing. I once took a friend out of the fens to a day's pheasant-shooting; and I was truly astonished to see how entirely he was baffled by the long-tails. He shot before them, under them, anywhere, in a word, but at them. Had they been snipes, he would have killed them with scarcely a miss: as it was, he bagged but a leash, in (I shame to say it) from 20 to 30 shots! No doubt he wounded many of the poor birds; but it only shows that woodshooting or hare-shooting is as different from snipe-shooting as one thing can be from another. Quick's the word with a snipe; and especially in cross shots, one must fire well forward. In this haphazard kind of work it is well to use as much shot as your gun can possibly carry pleasantly; for, when there is a recoil, there is an overload, which defeats its own object; and, instead of insuring the death of the quarry, may very well be termed " a life preserver.

ON THE GAME LAWS, SHOOTING, &c.

BY CECIL.

Looking around this jovial little island for sports and invigorating manly amusements, very few of them take a precedence over shooting, whenever it can be enjoyed upon anything approaching to an extensive scale. Since the last enactments of the legislature on the preservation of game, however, a great change has taken place in the circumstances under which, and the situations where it is now to be met with in any degree approaching to abundance. Ten years ago, country gentlemen possessing small estates, opulent farmers, and persons of that class, who were not restricted by their landlords, could enjoy their shooting over the land which they occupied, and which generally produced a fair show of partridges, pheasants, and hares, at all events in sufficient abundance to afford a moderate day's sport; and thus, accompanied by a neighbour or friend, they were enabled to enjoy themselves in a manner conducive to their pleasure, and compatible with their occupations. Nor, on such occasions, was the morning's sport alone the subject of amusement; the recapitulation in the evening over the social glass, when the events of the day became the source of discussion, including many incidents which cannot now be introduced, in consequence of the changes which have taken place, such as the conduct, condition, and perfections of the pointers or setters, are events which have, with the changes that have taken place, passed away like visions, and are no more to be indulged in. The classes of sportsmen here alluded to are nearly annihilated, at least, the game which was the object of their pursuit, and, therefore, the cause of their station in the sporting field, is extinct within their precincts; it has flown to other lands, where it is beyond their reach; or, wandering, is destroyed by the numerous assailants who are ever on the look out for it.

It was evidently a principal intention of the promoters of the last enactments on the game laws so to legislate as to increase and facilitate the opportunities of shooting with which the middle classes of society might avail themselves; but in this case, as in some others, their very intentions have been defeated, and productive of opposite consequences. Unfortunately, man is not gifted with the faculty of prescience; and however maturely laws or other arrangements may be considered and proposed, it is not unfrequently found that in some particular instances they present features quite at variance with the wishes of the promulgators. With a view of rendering this sport more thoroughly available to those persons who were not either proprietors of large estates, or sons of such fortunate mortals, officers in

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the army and the few others who come under the required classification for pronouncing them qualified, the restrictions were entirely abandoned, and the bare fact of procuring a certificate was rendered a sufficient protection to enable any man to shoot wherever he felt inclined, providing he could obtain permission from those in whom the property of the game became vested-a property which also, by the very same laws, became somewhat changed. This, added to the legalizing the sale of game, raised up a host of pursuers of various denominations, which, on small and unprotected estates, have thoroughly dispersed the game from such localities, and it is now only to be met with on gigantic possessions, where a retinue of keepers are supported for its preservation, and perhaps occasionally on some few of the adjoining fields belonging to persons fortunate enough to have their property so situated as to be in such a manner supplied from the great preserve. Even in such cases, the quantity of game will greatly depend on the measures adopted to encourage it; if much disturbed, it is quite certain to revert to the fields in which it lies quiet. On land not strictly looked after, the game will inevitably be poached, as the sale of it is a temptation which a poor man, imbued with that innate love of sporting with which so many are possessed, cannot resist. Thus small estates are, generally speaking, totally destitute of game, and the persons who formerly enjoyed a little promiscuous shooting may now toil days and weeks without being able to bring to bag a brace of birds per diem. It is incredible, the scarcity of game on lands not preserved, particularly in the principality of Wales. Only two years since, I experienced this myself, walking over very considerable tracts of land presenting the most enticing harbour for all kinds of game, especially partridges and pheasants, upon which not one of the feathered species could be found, with the exception of woodcocks and snipes, a very few hares, and now and then a solitary rabbit. I will venture to assert that a man may walk from day-break to dark in those parts of Breconshire, Carmarthenshire, and Cardiganshire, which are not preserved-and, in fact, preserved estates are far from being numerous-without obtaining, with the exception of woodcocks and snipes, half a dozen shots during his perambulation; and yet many parts appear to be most particularly calculated for the haunts of

game.

A strict attention to the preservation of game on all lands of moderate value, and especially where the science of agriculture has not arrived at a state of considerable perfection, cannot fail to be attended with very favourable results, not only to the owners of the soil, but to the community at large. Whatever means can be devised, founded upon true economical principles, to raise the greatest quantity of human food, is evidently a source of universal benefit. Under this consideration, therefore, the preservation of game in districts where but little produce is obtained, cannot but be regarded as a subject worthy of consideration, especially when it is borne in mind that game subsist in a great measure upon various seeds and vegetable substances which would be otherwise lost; not that I am about to assert that partridges and pheasants will not trespass at certain periods of the year