and of a sandy colour.  You keep throwing pebbles to the water’s edge, which the dog follows; and thus he is ever running to and fro.  In either case, the ducks, having something of the woman in their composition, gradually swim in, to ascertain the meaning or cause of these mysterious movements; and, once arrived within range, the sportsman rises suddenly, and, as the scared birds get on the wing, they receive the penalty of their curiosity in a murderous discharge.  These two methods they call “tolling;” and most effectual they prove for supplying the market.

Different nations exhibit different methods of ingenuity for the capture of game, &c.  I remember being struck, when in Egypt, with the artful plan employed for catching ducks and flamingos, on Lake Menzaleh; which is, for the huntsman to put a gourd on his head, pierced sufficiently to see through, and by means of which,—­the rest of his body being thoroughly immersed in water,—­he approaches his game so easily, that the first notice they have thereof is the unpleasant sensation they experience as his hand closes upon their legs in the depths of the water.

Of the town, &c., of Baltimore, I hope to tell you something more on my return.  We will therefore proceed at once to the railway station, and take our places for Pittsburg.  It is a drizzly, snowy morning, a kind of moisture that laughs at so-called waterproofs, and would penetrate an air-pump.  As there was no smoking-car, we were constrained to enter another; and off we started.  At first, the atmosphere was bearable; but soon, alas! too soon, every window was closed; the stove glowed red-hot; the tough-hided natives gathered round it, and, deluging it with expectorated showers of real Virginian juice, the hissing and stench became insufferable.  I had no resource but to open my window, and let the driving sleet drench one side of me, while the other was baking; thus, one cheek was in an ice-house, and the other in an oven.  At noon we came to “a fix;” the railway bridge across to Harrisburg had broken down.  There was nothing for it but patience; and, in due time, it was rewarded by the arrival of three omnibuses and a luggage-van.  As there were about eighty people in the train, it became a difficult task to know how to pack, for the same wretched weather continued, and nobody courted an outside place, with drenched clothes wherein to continue the journey.  At last, however, it was managed, something on the herrings-in-a-barrel principle.  I had one lady in my lap, and a darling unwashed pledge of her affection on each foot.  We counted twenty-six heads, in all; and we jolted away, as fast as the snow would let us, to catch the Philadelphia train, which was to pick us up here.

We managed to arrive about an hour and a half after it had passed; and, therefore, no alternative remained but to adjourn to the little inn, and fortify ourselves for the trial with such good things as mine host of the “Culverley” could produce.  It had now settled down to a regular fall of snow, and we began to feel anxious about the chances of proceeding.