WIELICZKA-WIGAN. Biographie Wieland's (4 vols., Leip. 1827; vols. 50 -53 of the Works), Wieland's ausgewählte Briefe (4 vols., Zür. 1815), Auswahl denkwürdiger Briefe (2 vols., Wien, 1815), and Briefe an Sophie Laroche, Berl. 1820). WIELICZKA, a small town of Austrian Galicia, 10 miles directly east-south-east of Cracow, and the same by railway. It is remarkable for its salt-mines, in which the majority of its inhabitants (about 6000 in number) are employed. The mines were discovered in 1250, and have been continuously worked since that time; though some assert that there is abundant evidence to prove that they have been worked since the 9th century. The town itself is entirely undermined by the excavations, which extend upwards of 9590 feet from east to west, 3600 feet from north to south, and are 1780 feet in depth. The mines extend to four stories or 'fields, one below the other. In the second story, the visitor is rowed across a salt lake, and when he has reached and is exploring the third story, he is informed that the lake he lately crossed is now right above his head. The stories are simply large chambers excavated in one enormous mass of rock-salt, of great purity, and apparently of inexhaustible extent. In one of the chambers, the miners have scooped out a Gothic chapel from the solid salt-rock, and have carved, not without skill, a number of statues and obelisks from the same material. The mines produce 55,121 tous English per annum. WIESBADEN, a town of Prussia, formerly capital of the independent duchy of Nassau, one of the oldest and most famous of the German watering: places, delightfully situated on the south slopes of Mount Taunus, 26 miles west of Frankfürt, and 5 miles north-west of Mainz by railway. The town has been called 'a city of lodging-houses,' and this may be understood from the fact, that during the "season' the number of the visitors is greater than that of the resident inhabitants. But though almost every house is appropriated to the reception or entertainment of guests, the town is well and regularly built. The Kursaal comprises an extensive dining-hall, in which frequently 300 people sit down to dinner, and which also serves as a ball-room, together with reading and gaming rooms. In the large gardens behind the Kursaal, it is the habit of the visitors to sit in the evenings at their numerous small tables, regaling themselves with coffee or ices-the men smoking, the women knitting and all either chatting or listening to the music played by a band on such occasions. Other buildings are the Schlösschen (Little Palace), containing a library of 60,000 vols., and a collection of antiquities, in which are a number of curious Roman bassi-relievi, statues, altars, &c. found in the vicinity; the handsome Protestant church, finished in 1860; the superb Greek chapel, built by the Duke of Nassau as a mausoleum in which repose the remains of his first wife. There are 14 hot springs, all of a high temperature, and numerous bathing-houses throughout the town; but the principal is the Kochbrunnen (Boiling-spring), the temperature of which is 156° Fahr. The spring has all the appearance of a boiling caldron, and so copiously does it pour forth its waters, that, though they are used both for drinking and to supply the principal baths in the town, a vast quantity escapes, and runs away through gutters and drains, sending up clouds of vapour in its passage along the streets, and adding to the warmth of the temperature of W. in summer. Next in heat and volume to the Kochbrunnen is the spring that rises in the garden of the Adler (Eagle) Hotel, the temperature of which is 134° Fahr. The use of the W. hotsprings is considered highly efficacious in cases of gout, rheumatism, scrofula, and other skin diseases and nervous affections. The waters of these springs are saline, and contain silica and iron. The prosperity of W. is entirely due to its springs; and the beauty of its situation and environment, the agreeable walks and rides, the charming views of vails during the season, render it one of the most the vicinity, and the never-failing gaiety that prepopular of the spas. The season lasts from June is over 20,000. Pop. (1862) 20,797. to September, and the number of visitors annually W. is very ancient; its springs are the Fontes Mattiaci mentioned by Pliny. The Romans built a station here, and erected a fort on a hill on the north-west side of the town, still known as the Roman legion. The Mattiaci, a subdivision of the Römerberg, and which was garrisoned by the 22d German tribe called the Catti, allied themselves with the Romans; but in the 3d c., the barbarian Germans rose against the Romans, and destroyed their forts, including Wiesbaden. Urns, tiles, coins, of a house is dug; and that the Romans appreciated &c. are found abundantly whenever the foundation the virtues of the waters is proved by the remains of ancient baths that have been found, and by the votive tablets recording the thanks of Romans who had been restored to health by the waters, still preserved in the museum. WIG (Lat. pilus, the hair; pilare, to pluck off the hair; from which was formed piluccare, and hence pilucca, a head of hair; this was transformed in Ital. into perruca, French perruque, whence Eng. periwig, shortened into wig). The use of false hair for concealing baldness, or for the supposed adornment of the head, appears to belong to all ages and countries. There is an Egyptian wig in the British Museum, supposed to be about 4000 years old; and some of the South Sea islanders are said to be skil After ful wig-makers. Xenophon mentions that Astyages WIGAN, a prosperous and important manufacturing town, and municipal and parliamentary borough, in Lancashire, on the Douglas, 15 miles south-south-east of Preston, and about the same distance from Liverpool on the south-west, and Manchester on the south-east. Irregularly built, and notwithstanding a number of improvements made within recent years, W. is not of very prepossessing appearance, and contains few objects worthy of special mention. It stands in the midst of a coal-field; and cannel coal abounds in the WIGAN-WIGHT. trict is absolutely the lowest in the kingdom; whil the mildness of its climate is evidenced by the luxu riance of the myrtles, fuchsias, sweet-scented ver benas, and other exotics, which not only live through the winter without protection, but attain the size of large bushes. vicinity. Cotton-spinning, and the manufacture of ness is attested by the returns of the registrar talicoes and other cotton goods, checks, and home-general, which prove that the death-rate of the dis made linens, are extensively carried on. There are also brass and iron foundries, factories for edge-tools, and other metallurgic works, chemical works, paperworks, and corn-mills. The river Douglas, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, afford facilities for mand navigation; and communication with the chief towns of this and the neighbouring counties is maintained by railways. Pop. (1851) 31,941; (1861) 37,658. In a geological point of view, the Isle of W. is most interesting. The great variety of strata displayed within so small an area, under circumstances so favourable for examination, renders it one of the best available localities for the young observer. The north side of the island presents a succession of Tertiary or Eocene strata, including beds of freshwater limestone, which have been extensively worked for building-stone for many centuries, and based on beds of London and Plastic Clay. In Alum Bay, at the west extremity of the island, the rapid succession of vertical layers of sand and clays of bright and varied hues, produces a singular and beautiful effect. The central ridge or backbone consists of strata of chalk imbedding layers of flints, and the underlying formations in an almost vertical position. Isolated masses of chalk that, in consequence of their superior hardness, have survived the marine and atmospheric waste, form the well-known Needles, at the west opening of the Solent, and the picturesque rocks of Freshwater Bay The downs at the south of the island belong to the same formation, but here the strata have been undisturbed, and are nearly horizontal. The cliffs of the Undercliff are of the Upper Greensand, or Firestone, underlying the chalk. Below this comes the Gault, or Blue Marl. To the action of the land-springs upon this unctuous formation, the land-slips to which the Back of the Island owes The Lower Greensand succeeds its beauty are due. the gault, occupying the greater part of the area between the north and south chalk downs. This forms excellent corn-land, and presents a wall of cliff to the sea, diversified with many narrow picturesque gorges, locally known as Chines, where a small rivulet has eaten away the friable strata. The chief of these are those of Shanklin, Luccombe, Blackgang, and Whale Chine. water Wealden formation is the lowest visible in the island, and is seen in the cliffs of Brook to the west, and of Redcliff Bay to the east. Bones of the colossal iguanodon and other saurians are found in his formation. WIGHT, ISLE OF, an island in the English Channel, remarkable for the variety and beauty of its scenery, and the mildness and salubrity of its chmate, lies almost centrally, close off the southern coast of England, in which it is partially embayed, sad is divided from it by a channel varying from less than 1 mile to more than 6 miles in breadth, known as the Solent (q. v.), which spreads out to the east into the broad and safe anchorage of Spithead (q. v.) and St Helen's Roads. Its form is remarkably regalar, its longer and shorter diameters (22 miles 5 furlongs, and 13 miles in length respectively) running almost due east and west, and north and Bath. Its shape is rhomboidal, and has been compared to a bird with expanded wings or to a turbot. It is 56 miles in circuit, and embraces an area, including its inlets, of 98,320 acres. Pop. (1861) 55,182. Nerport, which returns two members to parliament, the island returning one, is the capital; the other chief towns are Ryde, Cowes, and Ventnor (all described under their separate headings), of which the first and last have sprung up from small villages within the present century. Yarmouth is a small decayed town near the western extremity of the island, for terly returning two members, a privilege once also possessed by Newtown on the north-west coast, s once important town, now sunk to an insignificant hamlet. On the south-east coast, the delightful health-resorts of Sandown and Shanklin are fast acquiring the size and importance of towns. Railway communication has been opened between Ryde and Ventnor, and between Cowes and New. port. Throughout the island there are good though generally narrow roads, for the most part picturesque and bounded by hedgerows. The chief physical feature of the island, to which it owes its shape and much of its beauty, is a long undulating range of chalk downs, extending, as a kind of backbone, from the Culver Cliffs on the east, to the Needles on the west, rising to its greatest elevation in MottisThe soil of the island is very varied, both in ton Down, 661 feet (Ashey Down is 424 feet, and Bembridge Down 355 feet) above the sea. The river nature and fertility. That of the northern half is, to Medina, rising near the southern extremity of the a considerable extent, a cold, stiff clay, more suited island, flows north through a gap in this range, for the growth of wood, especially oak, than corn. expands into a tidal estuary below Newport, and Of late years, however, much of the woodland has flows into the Solent at Cowes, and divides the island been cleared, and judicious draining operations, in into the hundreds of the East and West Medine. which the late Prince Consort led the way on the In addition to the central ridge, a second range of royal domain of Osborne (near East Cowes), have chalk downs of greater elevation-St Boniface Down, produced very beneficial results. Farming is still on the whole somewhat primitive; even on large 783 feet, Dunnose (Shanklin Down), 771 feet, St Catherine's, 769 feet-rises at the southern point of farms the flail may still be seen in use. the island, and expands into a broad promontory, soil of the south half is chiefly a red loam, which is the south face of which forms the picturesque dis- exceedingly productive, especially in crops of barley, trict known as the Undercliff, or Back of the and, in the more rich and sheltered lands, of white Island, of which Ventnor is the capital. This dis- wheat. Red wheat is grown in abundance in other trict owes its remarkable beauty to a series of land- parts of the island; while the stiffer clays of the ships on a gigantic scale, of pre-historic date, which north grow capital crops of oats. The chalk downs have laid bare a long wall of rugged cliff, below afford admirable pasturage for sheep, which are which a succession of sunny terraces, due to the celebrated for the pureness of their wool, chiefly gradual subsidence of the strata, slope gently down exported to Yorkshire, and which furnish the London to the sea. The whole of this part of the island is market with early lamb, as many as 4000 being completely sheltered from the colder winds, and annually exported. But few oxen comparatively are enjoys a well-merited reputation as a residence for fattened. The chief exports are wool, corn, four, invalids suffering from consumption or any disease cement stones (septaria), and white glass-house of the respiratory organs. Its remarkable healthi-sand. The fresh 189 The WIGTON-WIGTOWN. The history of the Isle of W. presents but comparatively few points of interest. It is supposed, with much probability, to have been the tin mart of the Greek traders mentioned under the name of Ictis by Diodorus Siculus. The Romans knew it as Vecta or Vectis, which is merely the Latinised form of the native name. It was conquered for the Romans by Vespasian in the reign of Claudius (43 A.D.). Cerdic, the founder of the kingdom of Wessex, took the island 530 A. D., and handed it over to his nephews, Stuf and Wihtgar. In 661 A.D., it was reduced by Wulphere of Mercia, and given to Ethelwold, king of Sussex, from whom it was wrested (686 A.D.) by Ceadwalla of Wessex, to whom, under the benign influence of Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, the island owes the introduction of Christianity. During the three centuries preceding the Norman Conquest, it was repeatedly devastated by the Danish pirates, who made it their stronghold, to which they retired with their plunder. William the Conqueror gave it to his kinsman, FitzOsborne; Henry I. transferred it to the family of De Redvers, in whose hands it remained till the reign of Edward I., when it passed by sale to the crown. During the French wars of Edward III. and his successors, the island was repeatedly invaded and pillaged by the French. At the close of the reign of Henry VIII., the armada despatched by Francis I., under the command of D'Annebault, made several landings on the coast, and inflicted some damage, but were ultimately driven back by the prowess of the islanders. The most interesting event in the history of the island is the imprisonment of Charles I. in the castle of Carisbrooke, after his flight from Hampton Court, from November 23, 1647 to September 15, 1648. Carisbrooke was also the place of the imprisonment of his children, Prince Henry and the Princess Elizabeth, the latter of whom died there, and was buried in Newport Church, where a beautiful monument by Baron Marochetti has been erected to her memory by Queen Victoria. Among the celebrated natives of the Isle of W. we may notice Dr Robert Hooke, the experimental philosopher, born at Freshwater, 1635; and Dr Thomas Arnold of Rugby, the regenerator of public-school education, born at East Cowes, 1795. The antiquities are not numerous. Sepulchral barrows occur on the downs, and Saxon burialplaces have been discovered in several localities. There are the remains of a Roman villa, with a tesselated pavement, at Carisbrooke. The remains of Quarr Abbey, near Ryde, are very scanty. Carisbrooke Castle is a fine ruin, occupying a commanding position. The churches are picturesque, but not remarkable for beauty of architecture. There are but few monumental brasses or other sepulchral memorials of interest. WIGTON, a market and small manufacturing town of Cumberland, in the midst of a specially agricultural district, 114 miles by railway southwest of Carlisle. It carries on manufactures of ginghams and checks. Pop. (1861) 4011. WI'GTOWN, a county forming the south-west corner of Scotland, is bounded on the W. by the Irish Channel, N. by Ayrshire, E. by the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the Solway Firth, and S. by the Irish Sea. Its extent from east to west is computed at from 32 to 34 miles, and from north to south 24 to 28 miles. This county, which constitutes West Galloway, was formed about the year 1341; and is between 54° 38-55° 4′ N. lat., and 4 16-5° 6′ W. longitude. W. is somewhat irregular in form, being deeply intersected by two arms of the sea, one of which, Loch Ryan, a long narrow inlet, stretches southwards from the north-west corner for fully 9 miles into the county, while Luce Bay on the south makes a wide indentation 18 miles long with an average of 12 wide, the heads of the inlet and bay being only 6 miles apart. The western part of W., known as the Rhins of Galloway, thus forms a peninsula whose length (from north to south) is 28 miles, and breadth 14-6 miles; its northern extremity is Corsewall Point, and its southern the Mull of Galloway, each promontory being provided with a light-house. The south-eastern half of W. is separated from the Stewartry by Wigtown Bay, 15 miles long and 14 wide at its mouth, and between this latter and Luce Bay, W. extends southwards in a blunt triangular form, terminating in Burrow Head. The inhabitants of W. were originally of Celtic origin, and up to the middle of the 16th c., a Celtic dialect was universally spoken; and for a century afterwards, it was in use in the remote districts. W. is irregular in its surface, but its eminences are inferior in height to those of any other county of Scotland-none of them exceeding 500 feet. The soil is varied, and—with the exception of a portion lying along the sea-shore, especially in the southeast, which consists of a rich loam-the quality is mostly inferior. There is a large extent of moss and moor, mostly of a very poor and unproductive nature, judging from the appearance and produce of much of what has been reclaimed. There has, however, been a considerable improvement made of late years in farm-buildings. The climate is rather mild, but moist, the rainfall being comparatively great. There are many dairy establishments in this county, almost exclusively for making cheese similar to the Somersetshire cheddar. The cows are frequently let for hire at from £9 to £12 per cow, the farmer supplying all food, and the dairyman the labour. Most of the cows are of the Ayrshire breed; it is difficult to obtain the pure native breed of cattle; and the Galloway pony, formerly in such vogue, is now hardly to be met with. The area of W. is over 512 sq. m., or 327,906 acres, of which about three-fifths are either uncultivated or would be unprofitable to reclaim. The government returns for 1866 give 37,242 acres under corn crops, 18,595 under green crops, 38,941 under clover and sown grasses, and 29,845 under permanent meadow pasture. The number of cattle in the same year was 35,703, of which 14,980 are cows; there are 118,669 sheep and 10,273 pigs. Besides numerous small streams, W. contains three rivers of considerable size, the Cree, which forms the eastern boundary, and the Bladenoch— both of which fall into Wigtown Bay-and the Luce, which empties itself into Luce Bay; the former two are navigable for a few miles, and yield salmon and trout. The county also possesses several small the south-west, is situated the parish of Kirkfresh-water lochs. In the Khins of Galloway, on maiden, the most southerly point in Scotlandhence from Maidenkirk to John o' Groat's.' There were at an early period a considerable number of religious houses in the county; and the church, believed to be the oldest in Scotland, founded by St Ninian, was built near the site of what is now the village of Whithorn. At the Reformation there were 21 parishes; the number has since been reduced to 17. The principal towns are Wigtown, Newton-Stewart, Stranraer, and Whithorn. There is no mineral wealth, and little trade or mannfacture carried on in W. There is a distillery at Bladenoch, a woollen manufactory at Kirkcowan, and some saw-mills and starch-mills at Stranraer and elsewhere. The mail-coach was first run though W. in 1804, and was only superseded a few years WIGTOWN-WILDBAD. It was ago by the railway between Dumfries and Port- was the effect of his eloquence, that when he had patrick, from which latter the shortest sea-passage to concluded, a resolution had been come to by the Ireland is obtained. The old valued rent was £5634; freeholders that he should be asked to stand for the new valuation in 1866-1867 was £183,962. The the county. He did so; and in spite of opposi pop., in 1861, was 42,095; inhabited houses, 6868; tion from the great Whig families, he was returned constituency, returning one M.P., in 1866, 1183. without a contest. W.'s success in the leading WIGTOWN, a royal, municipal, and parliamen- county, set an example to other constituencies, tary burgh, market-town, and seaport in the south-which was of very great advantage to the Pitt west of Scotland, capital of the county of Wigtown ministry. In the same year, W. made a tour on the or West Galloway, is situated on Wigtown Bay, near continent with some ladies of his family and Isaac the mouth of the Bladenoch Water. It is 40 miles Milner, the Dean of Carlisle, during which the west-south-west of Dumfries, and nearly 150 miles serious impressions of his youth seem to have been distant by railway from Edinburgh. The parish revived. In 1787, he in a great measure eschewed church was erected in 1852. It is of Gothic archi- gaiety, and founded an association for the distecture, and much superior to the ordinary run of couragement of vice; and in the following year, country churches. In the churchyard there are while in very bad health, he entered on his great three tombstones in memory of martyrs who struggle for the abolition of the slave-trade, to suffered in the time of Episcopal persecution. Two which he thenceforward dedicated his whole time. of them are old. On the summit of the Windyhill, He was powerfully supported by the Quakers,* and the highest ground in the neighbourhood of the by Mr Thomas Clarkson, who kept alive interest town, an obelisk of freestone was placed a few years Commons. In 1789, he first proposed the abolition in the subject beyond the walls of the House of ago, in memory of these same martyrs-two of whom, women, are said to have been drowned here. of the slave-trade in the House of Commons, and The authenticity of this event, though lately ques- met, as he expected, with powerful opposition. In tioned by some, is doubted by very few in the 1804, his bill was first carried through the Comlocality where it is said to have happened. A large mons; it was thrown out in the Lords; and in and very handsome building, which is used as a the following year it was again lost in the Commons. town-hall and court-house, was erected in 1863. In 1806, however, a resolution was moved by Mr Pop. (1861) 2101. There is no particular trade Fox, pledging the Commons to a total abolition of carried on in the town. At Bladenoch Bridge, how the slave trade in the following session. ever, which is held to be part of the burgh, although adopted by the Lords. Just before the discussion nearly three-fourths of a mile distant to the south, began in January 1804, a work had been published there is a distillery of considerable extent; also an influence on public opinion and the subsequent deby W. against the slave-trade, which had a marked iron foundry and a coach-building establishment. W. unites with Whithorn, Stranraer, and New bates. The bill was passed by the Lords. In the ComGalloway in electing a member to the House of mons, it was carried by an enthusiastic majority. Sir Commons. The registered tonnage of the port in Samuel Romilly, who supported the measure, compared the feelings of Napoleon, then at the height of his glory, with those of the English philanthropist, who would that day lay his head upon his pillow, and remember that the slave-trade was no more; and the whole House burst into applause, and greeted W. with enthusiastic cheers. W. now sought to secure the abolition of the slave-trade abroad. He at the same time entered on an agitation for the total abolition of slavery itself. Declining health, however, compelled him in 1825 to retire from parliament, in which, since 1812, he had sat for the borough of Bramber, having at the latter date resigned the representation of Yorkshire. movement against slavery was then intrusted to Sir T. Fowell Buxton. Three days before W.'s death, news was brought him that the Abolition Bill had passed a second reading, and he thanked God he had lived to see his countrymen spend 20 millions sterling in such a cause. He died 29th July 1833, and was buried as a national benefactor in Westminster Abbey. In 1797, W. married the daughter of Mr J. Spooner, the banker of Birming ham, by whom he had a large family. His third son, Samuel, is the present Bishop of Oxford. W. is the author of a Practical View of Christianity, which, on its publication in 1797, met with great success. In six months it went through five editions, and it has since been translated into most of the European languages.-See the Life of Wilberforce, by his Sons. 1866 was 3097. WIKANA, the Wacaka des Indes of the French, a dietetic preparation of cacao much used in France for invalids. It consists of roasted cacao nibs and sugar, in the proportion of three parts of the latter to one of the former, well mixed together, and flavoured with cinnamon, vanilla, ambergris, and musk. WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM, was born at Hull, on 24th August 1759. His father was a wealthy merchant, descended from an old family, proprietors of Wilberfoss, in the East Riding of York. W., at the age of 9, on his father's death, was sent to school at Wimbledon, where, under the care of a pious aunt, he ran the risk of becoming a Methodist. But his mother did not approve of a serious education, and removed him to a Yorkshire school, where the religious impressions he had received were soon disipated by a life of gaiety. His constitution was delicate, but he was quick and spirited, and fond of Bociety, in which his lively conversation and musical talent made him a great favourite. While at school, he addressed a letter to a York paper in condemnation of the odious traffic in human flesh,' a subject he seems never afterwards to have lost sight of. At 17, be entered St John's College, Cambridge, and in due time he passed his examinations with credit. He came, on attaining his majority, into possession of a large fortune, and determined to enter parliament. In 1780, he was returned for Hull. He had known Mr Pitt when at Cambridge, and in London they became inseparable friends. W., in parliament, however, remained independent of party. The elevation of Mr Pitt to the premiership gave him an opportunity of taking office, but he declined to do so. He rendered, however, efficient service to his friend. In March 1784, on the eve of a dissolution, he spoke at a county meeting in York, called to vote an address against the Coalition Ministry; and such The WI’LDBAD, a small town of Würtemberg, in the Black Forest, romantically situated in a valley watered by the Enz, about 32 miles south-south-east of Carlsruhe, 18 miles of which are by railway to Pforzheim, and the remaining 14 by road, through a beautiful portion of the Black Forest. It is noted for its thermal springs and baths, the water of which ranges from 90° to 100° F. in temperature. The baths consist of numerous basins formed round the springs WILDBAD-WILD-FOWL. as they gush from the rocks, and floored with sand for the comfort of the bathers. From the circumstance that these baths are natural, or wild, and not artificial, the town derives its name. The waters are nearly pure, the principal ingredient they contain being common salt. They are peculiarly beneficial for rheumatism. gout, stiffness of limbs, paralysis, &c., and for some skin-diseases. The season lasts from May till September, and the number of visitors has steadily increased from 470 in 1830 to 4782 in 1860. No gambling is allowed. Goitre abounds here and in the neighbouring close valleys of the Black Forest. Pop. 2008. WILD-FOWL, a popular term, synonymous with Water-fowl, and generally applied to web-footed birds, but sometimes employed also to include herons, plovers, and other birds which frequent rivers, lakes, and sea-shores. The different kinds are noticed under their proper heads.- Wild-fowling is one of the most difficult, and yet one of the most interesting pursuits of the British sportsman. Rockfowling (see FoWLING) is not included under this term. Wild-fowling is prosecuted in a great variety of ways. The wild-fowler seeks his game with a gun and dog, generally a retriever; or he uses a small boat, called a punt, adapted to the shallow waters in estuaries which wild-fowl frequent; or he proceeds a little further to sea, in a boat with sails; sometimes he employs a yacht, or he endeavours to Fig. 1.-Stalking-horse. modern decoy-pipe, the birds, however, being generally driven, and not enticed into it. The panthera was a large purse or drag-net, placed along the banks of rivers. The ancient wild-fowlers sometimes practised a system of decoying, apparently less perfect than the modern system, but essentially of the same nature, enticing the birds to their snares by movements intended to excite their curiosity, and for this purpose the fowlers clothed themselves in feathered jerkins, and danced with peculiar motions and gestures. Nooses and bird-lime were also much employed in ancient times. The Egyptians made much use of the throw-stick, a missile similar to the boomerang of the Australians, and which was dexterously thrown so as to hit the neck of the bird. In more recent times, falconry was much practised for the capture of wild-fowl. The gun, decoys, and flight-ponds are now chiefly in use. Although many wild-fowl are killed with the ordinary fowling-piece, it is not thus that the greatest numbers are obtained. Much larger guns are used in punts and yachts, by which many are killed at one shot. The stalking-horse is still used in some parts of England, in order to enable the wild-fowler, armed with an ordinary fowling-piece, to get within reach of the birds, whilst they are feeding on the level swampy ground which they chiefly frequent. A horse well trained for the purpose advances towards them, the fowler concealing himself on the side of it furthest from them. An ox is sometimes trained for this use, and indeed the kind of animal with which the birds are most familiar in the locality is most suitable. Artificial stalking-horses are sometimes employed, made of canvas, and stuffed with straw, the head being down, as if grazing. This practice is common in some parts of France. The use of the stalking-horse is very ancient. Wild-fowl shooting is not unattended with danger. In the pursuit of wounded birds on the ooze, the sportsman or fowler must use splashers, thin boards about 18 inches square, attached to the feet, to prevent him from sinking; and if he fall, it is very difficult for him to regain his feet. He cannot raise himself by resting his hands on the mud, which only makes him sink deeper and deeper, nor can he do it by getting upon his knees. The only method is to roll over on the back, drawing the arms out of the mud, and placing one foot with his splasher firmly on the ooze, to press both hands on the knee of the leg so raised, and give a vigorous spring. The punter is also in great danger From Blaine's Encyclopedia of Rural Sports. By kind permission of the publishers, of losing himself in foggy weather Messrs Longman.) approach his game on land by the aid of a stalkinghorse; or he has recourse to decoys, and other contrivances, by which great numbers of wild-fowl are captured. It is chiefly on the eastern and southeastern coasts of England that wild-fowl abound in Britain, and they are most abundant in severe winters, coming as migratory birds from the north; but the draining of the fen-lands has greatly reduced their numbers. The ancient Greeks and Romans captured wild-fowl by various kinds of nets, one of which, called the argumentum, was not unlike the when pursuing wounded birds, and being unable to get back to a fearful death awaits him on the his punt, when return of the tide. The curly-coated retriever is the best dog for the wild-fowl shooter, but good training is necessary to fit the dog for his use. The punter ought not to carry a dog with him, because the dog, having no opportunity of exercise after his return from the water, soon suffers from the cold of the winter weather in which the sport is pursued. Sledging for wild-fowl is practised by professional wild-fowl shooters on some parts of the English |