get aground at the side of the creek, or steady your canoe by means of forcing each oar from between the thowls into the mud, otherwise the recoil of the gun will set her rocking, and thus you might probably be tipped out. Having made. all fast, rise up and fire. Take care, however, to rise high enough to be well clear of the mud, or not a feather will you touch, and present as follows; -by day or moonlight, if the birds are close, directly at them, or, if beyond forty yards, shoot at their heads,-unless they are feeding in a concave place, where the tide has left a kind of plash, in which case you must level rather under them, or you will only graze their back feathers. In star-light take your aim just at the top of the narrow black line in which birds always appear to one who is low down; and when so dark that you cannot see your gun, present, as you think, about a foot over, or you will most likely shoot above a foot under them.

"Should you have been successful, you will, if at night, generally hear your cripples (wounded fowl) beating on the mud before you can sufficiently recover your eyes, from being dazzled by the fire, to see them. Your man then puts on his mudboards," (which are flat square pieces of wood fastened to the feet, to enable the party to walk or wade through mud,) "taking the setting pole to support him, and assist the dog in collecting the killed and wounded; taking care to secure first the outside birds, lest they should escape to a creek. During this time you are left in charge of the

punt, and should, if possible, keep a look out, in order to see if any more birds fall dead or wounded from the company, before they have flown out of sight.

"The gunner generally calculates on bringing home the half only of what he shoots, from the difficulty of catching the whole of his winged birds, which he calls cripples, and those that (to use the pigeon phrase,) fall out of bounds, which he calls droppers. If the birds fly up he generally declines firing, knowing that the moment they are on the wing, they become so much more spread, that he could seldom get more than three or four, for which it would be hardly worth while to disturb the mud, particularly as widgeon, by night, if not fired at, will in cold weather probably settle again at no great distance.”*

Mr. Greener, to whose work we have already referred, says, "Never make duck guns (shoulderguns) above seven-eighths in the bore, if you wish them to kill at a great distance, and not less than fifteen or sixteen pounds weight, and full four feet long."

WILD-FOWL SHOOTING FROM A PUNT, WITH A

STANCHION-GUN.

The most destructive method of pursuing wildfowl is that adopted by the coast gunners resident in the vicinity of creeks and harbours, who kill the

* Instructions to Young Sportsmen. 8th edit. London, 1838.

birds for sale. A gun of immense weight is fixed upon a rest or frame or carriage, either in a flatbottomed canoe, or some other floating craft calculated to make way either in shallow water, or ooze, or over sands. It may for once be fine amusement to an amateur-shot to row about in quest of hoopers, (wild swans,) geese, and widgeons, in a frosty moonlight night, with an experienced craftsman and Newfoundland dog, but a few blank nights in succession have a remarkably cooling effect. Much has been said of the luxury of a shower-bath, and of its salutiferous properties,-something has lately been written on the young deer-stalker's emotions when he first feels the mountain-burn enter at the breast of his shirt. We, too, could be discursive on the amateur-gunner's sensations when his Newfoundland Neptune shakes the superincumbent salt fluid from his hide every time he returns to the boat. Wishing them success, we leave the coastgunners to their trade; our notions of sport do not extend to rowing about, during a wintry night, in a wet boat, with a swearing seaman and a damp dog.

POINTERS AND SETTERS.

The dog seems to be endued with some instincts for the exclusive service of man; whereas the instincts of all other animals are conducive to the supply of their individual wants, and their usefulness to man is secondary thereto. It would be difficult to controvert the argument, that the pointer's instinct was given for the purpose of aiding men to capture or kill game, by means of such engines.

as nets or guns. This, we are aware, may be a doubtful position to maintain; but who can say for what other apparent purpose this peculiar faculty was given? It may, indeed, be urged, that the propensity to point, in the pointer, is a means ordained by providence for his subsistence in a wild state, by enabling him to approach within reach of his prey, and thus to accomplish, by another species of stealth, what the tiger and other animals of the cat tribe effect by ambuscade. Such an argument, however, is presumptively rebutted by the fact, that all existing races of wild dogs are gregarious, and resort to the chase for food; nor is there any record of the existence of dogs in a state of nature, except those calculated for the chase. It is therefore gratuitous to assert, that the instinct or faculty of pointing was bestowed upon the pointer as a means of subsistence, since he has ever been dependant on man for food.

It is strongly argued, that all dogs have descended from one common stock, and that by difference in food, climate, and training, they have become what they are at present; nor is it more improbable that such is the fact, than that the human race are descended from one common parent; for dogs are not more dissimilar than the various tribes of men, who differ not only in outward form, but morally and intellectually, as much as dogs vary in size, shape, temper, and sagacity. Those animals which can be domesticated improve by acquaintance with man, as the wild fruits by cultivation. All wild dogs have some qualities in