Untitled

Colonist, Issue 26, 19 January 1858, Page 3

Wild Fowl Shooting.—The method of shooting wild fowl on Chesepeake Bay, is to wait for them as they fly up and down, in proportion as the flats on which they feed are submerged too deeply for their use by the rise of the spring tides, behind screens erected for the purpose on the points and islands over which they must necessarily pass, and then shoot them on the wing. The sport often had by parties at these points, which are for the most part rented by clubs of sportsmen or by individuals, and very jealously preserved, is magnificent. The shooting, however, is peculiar, and exceedingly difficult to those un-; used to it, who are apt to miss all sorts of fair shots, though good marksmen on the upland at other game. This is owing to the fact, that many of the shots have to bo fired almost perpendicularly in the air, at flocks passing directly over the sportman's head—a difficult shot at the best to kill, and one in which it is doubly difficult to make a large allowance for the distance and the speed at which the fowl are flying. This is, moreover, very deceptive. Duck of all kinds, although their flight appears slow and lumbering, with a vast expenditure of flapping, fly infinitely faster than is commonly supposed, as is evident from their having been minuted by telegraph while passing points and promontories on the sea-coast, and found to travel, when on their ordinary comings and goings, at the rate, of ninety miles an hour. Of all the missed shots at ducks flying past or over the gun, nineteen twentieths fall far behind the object- Another point worthy of notice is this, that the breast of all wild fowl is nearly impenetrably cuirassed against shot by the dense cushon of down which envelops jt, and that a blow behind is rarely on the instant effective to bring down the fowl. So that unless the charge take effect in the head and neck, well before the wing, or a pinion be broken, the shot is generally thrown away ; It is, therefore, scarcely possible to fire too far in advance of a single bird, crossing or passing over the gun at. from forty to sixty yards distance. The Indian Mutinies—Uelief Fund.—We are happy to be able to announce that the .Sublime Porte has instructed its ambassador in .London, to forward to the Lord mayor £h« sum of 100QI. as his donation to the Fund for the Relief of the Sufferers by the Mutinies in India. The importance of this expression of sympathy from the acknowledged head of the Mahomnjedan religion will be at once perceived— Times.