VICISSITUDES OF SINK-BOX SHOOTING 45 
ried flight. The final half dozen ducks in the photo- 
graph, that are still in the water, where all were feeding 
when our boat came upon the scene, have not yet flown, 
but alarm is in the air and every swimming or standing 
duck has his or her head high as possible, eager to 
meet trouble very much farther off than halfway. As 
our boat came a trifle nearer, the laggards were of one 
mind and sprang all together in the air and made off 
after their companions. 
The East Lake is a part and portion of the north edge 
of the Great Salt Lake. Naturally shallow, the silt 
constantly poured into it by the Bear River made it 
still shallower. A few inches of lowering water level 
in the Great Salt Lake gradually drained a dozen square 
miles of this shallow north edge. With the vanishing 
of the acrid salt water in which nothing will live, much 
less grow, Bear River poured its fresh floods over the 
mud-flats. Wild grasses and duck food quickly grew 
in the fresh water and the East Lake became a paradise 
for wild fowl. 
The mouth or overflow of the river was shallow. The 
silt brought down for many years had made many shift- 
ing mudbanks and sandbars. We often ran the boat on 
a mudbank where the day before was a foot of water. 
A big ox skull, stuck on a stake, marked the deepest 
channel of the overflow from the many smaller branches 
that were impassable in places even for a row-boat. 
Higher up, the banks of the river were lined with tules 
and cat-tails, with willow trees growing behind them. 
This growth extended to within fifty rods of the mouth 
of the overflow. There the rims on both sides of the 
river were soft mud an inch or two above the level of 
the water. A few small weeds had started growing 
along the rims. It was nature’s way of holding the mud 
