TREE-SHOOTING: A FISHING EXPEDITION Just on the verge and borderland of the territory that could be ranged in safety there grew a stunted oak in a mound beside the brook.

Perhaps the roots had been checked by the water; for the tree, instead of increasing in bulk, had expended its vigour in branches so crooked that they appeared entangled in each other.

This oak was a favourite perching-place, because of its position: it could also be more easily climbed than straight-grown timber, having many boughs low down the trunk.

With a gun it is difficult to ascend a smooth tree; these boughs therefore were a great advantage.
One warm afternoon late in the summer I got up into this oak; and took a seat astride a large limb, with the main trunk behind like the back of a chair and about twenty feet above the mound.

Some lesser branches afforded a fork on which the gun could be securely lodged, and a limb of considerable size came across in front.