DAYS OX THE ILLINOIS 57 



anywhere during the season. They belonged to one of 

 his parishioners. Good decoys are a hobby of mine. 



Groing through Peoria Lake I loaded my boat on the 

 steamer David Swain at Chillicothe and took passage 

 for Peoria, 18 miles distant, to avoid pulling against a 

 strong wind blowing up the lake. I had a fine view of 

 the lake from the upper deck of the steamer, and saw 

 many flocks of bluebills, a few redheads and canvasbacks, 

 a sample of what was to come. Also countless coots or 

 mudhens. The river is a mile wide or more along this 

 part of its course. 



I passed many interesting views on the river. Starved 

 Bock, Buffalo Rock, Senachwine Lake (where T. S. Van 

 Dyke, "the historian of the Dlinois River," did some of 

 his first duck shooting), the beautiful Sister Islands near 

 Henry, the Copperas Creek dam, and finally the pic- 

 turesque little town of Liverpool located on an island in 

 the Illinois, being ten miles from a railroad. 



About two miles above Chillicothe I heard mallards 

 calling loudly on a lake just back of the trees along the 

 river banl^. Cutting across a big bend in the river to a 

 fisherman's cabin-boat (he had a large assortment of 

 boats and nets), I said to him: ''What are all those 

 ducks over there making such a noise about? Are they 

 decoys?" "No," he said, "they are wild mallards, and 

 there are thousands of them. They are shooting over 



