Note 73 — Chapter XXXV · THE STANCHION-GUN IN SPAIN.

This failure of the gunning-punt in Spain is the more inexplicable as in Egypt—the only other southern land in which, to our knowledge, this sport has been attempted—the very reverse was the case. An Englishman who took out a punt to the Nile abandoned the pursuit, as he found no difficulty in taking the craft to such close quarters that he bagged fifty to sixty each shot. Similarly, Lord Londesborough found the fowl in the Egyptian lagoons so easily accessible that, after securing 2,290 geese and 1,800 ducks in the season (sixty-four geese being his biggest shot), he abandoned further operations as lacking the one essential condition—that of difficulty. (Badminton Library.—"Shooting: Moor and Marsh," pp. 261-2.)