154 GAME AKD ITS PROTECTION. 



of the birds as they come nearer and nearer, and 

 grow larger and larger, from mere specks on the 

 horizon to the size of broad-bills, canvas-backs, or 

 perliaps brant or geese, is hardly to be surpassed by 

 any kind of sport. In most of the Southern waters 

 the destructive nature of these machines is so well 

 recognized, that non-residents are not permitted to 

 use them, and the natives keep this method of 

 wild-fowling to themselves. 



The shooter lies on his back in this modified cof- 

 fin, and whenever a flock approaches he rises to a 

 sitting posture and fires. He cannot leave his float- 

 ing home, and is unable to retrieve his ducks with- 

 out the aid of an assistant. There have been many 

 accidents arising from carelessness or inexperience, 

 not merely in the use of the machine itself, but 

 from the fault of the tender; and so many guns 

 have blown lioles in the bottom of the box, that it 

 is the habit of the gunners on the south side of 

 Long Island always to warn green hands, and in- 

 struct them how to rest and hold their guns. In 

 two instances within my own knowledge, the sailing 

 boat that accompanies the shooter, and serves as his 

 tender and protector, was unable to return to him. 

 In one case it was driven to leeward, and could not 

 work back to windward, and in the other it went 

 aground on a falling tide just before dark, when 

 the thermometer ranged but little above zero. In 

 both cases the sportsmen were saved, but in both 

 the hand of death grazed them closely. 



Night shooting is a still more deleterious prac- 



