A MORNING IN A SCULLING FLOAT 9 



tlirougli the mist. An extra flirt of the blade and I set 

 up, but they are wild, and instantly, up and away. The 

 range is too handy, however, for them to get oif scot 

 free and they barely gain headway ere a double shot 

 pitches four birds out of the flock and to my utter sur- 

 prise one proves a splendid canvasback, the first to be 

 taken on this body of water so far as known. 



Already I have with the seven birds a nice little bag 

 under the circumstances and being quite at sea as to my 

 location reverse my position in the^ float and with the 

 hayboard for a backrest enjoy a pull at the pipe while 

 arranging the birds and waiting for the climbing sun to 

 bore through and burn away the fog. By degrees some 

 treetops of familiar outline reveal themselves above the 

 clouds of dissipating haze and I am amazed to find, in- 

 stead of being far across on the opposite shore, I am 

 still on my own side and a good mile distant down the 

 line. But then, as one spot is about the equal of another 

 on this sheet of water and believing a wood duck or two 

 might be had for the flushing among the cattails that 

 girt the pond's lower end I brought the scull about and 

 headed out from shore once more in that direction. 



The atmosphere fast clearing now before the advance 

 of a slight breeze, the lifting mists reveal quite a scat- 

 tering of birds along the course I shall pursue. A flock 

 of four on the right appear the handiest and though a 

 hundred yards still separate us they are evidently ducks 



