258 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
won't; but let me know, did you see them light there ? ” 
« No, I didn’t,” isaid J. *This* 1s how. J’ ‘knew it; 
yet, I didn't know it; but I felt they ought to be there. 
That island is perfectly familiar to me, and a great 
place for ducks to sit in midday picking up gravel, or 
sitting in the sun. ‘To-day it is clear, but cold; aslight 
wind blowing from the northwest: naturally they 
would get out of the wind and sit in the sun. For an 
hour before we got there, that island was constantly in 
my sight. Nota hunter passed there, nothing to dis- 
turb them, and I felt morally sure they would be there. 
My jumping and killing the precise number at the 
other island, prompted me to test fate a trifle further; 
so without malice aforethought, the scenting or smell- 
ing of game was sprung on you. Had the birds not 
been found, my surprise would of course have been 
very complete, and I am afraid I should have claimed 
the scent was lost by the ducks swimming off in the 
water.” 
The morning following this hunt we distributed 50 
mallards among our friends. Had we hunted in a hap- 
hazard manner, regardless of method, without calling 
into service lessons that years of experience had taught 
one of us, we would not have killed one-tenth of the 
number we did. 
There are lessons to be learned in this article, which 
should be committed to memory by every hunter. The 
day so exceedingly beautiful, the frost so transparent, 
the trees so gorgeous in their silvered coverings, the 
sky, the water, the earth,—all Nature in her brightest 
garbs, caused one to involuntarily recognize the exist- 
ence of the ever-living God. Then, when you hunt, 
don’t be selfish, and hunt merely for the game to be had ; 
