FROM PORT TO STARBOARD
MM. LEBUREAU AND THE AMPHIBIOUS DOE

All the newspapers reported this week the extraordinary adventure of this doe which, pursued by hunters at the mouth of the Rye (England), threw itself resolutely into the water and was fished out by the sailors of the barque Saint-Joseph , from Etaples, who brought her back to the port. The story was not banal, but Mr. Lebureau took it upon himself to add a burlesque chapter to it.

The Etaples fishermen claimed the beast as a wreck; they had counted without customs which never loses its rights. The latter declared that it was a matter of contraband and, what is more serious, of game imported during prohibited times. What to do with the doe? She was impounded in a stable in Etaples. Then the two parties submitted their dispute to the competent authorities in Boulogne. There was general panic among the leather workers who, having read through texts and circulars, ended up sending a long file to the Central Administration in Paris.

In the meantime, General Pitt, hunting master of H.M. Briton, requested and obtained from the French authorities that the animal not be killed, because, it seems, English hunters would retain their rights.

Everything seemed to be going well and we were getting ready to bring the beast back to England with great fanfare. Alas! they also have their Mr. Lebureau on the other side of the Channel. The Ministry of Agriculture in fact advised General Pitt that due to the foot-and-mouth epidemic raging in France, the doe, if brought back to England, would have to be quarantined.

The beast, meanwhile, feasts at the expense of the innkeeper who took him in and who finds the prank in bad taste. As for the sailors of the Saint-Joseph, they gave up doe fishing forever.

René BARBIER.