DECOYS. 61 



" blow." If you remain in the stern, you will find 

 it very hard to keep your boat head to vvind ; 

 when stooping to pick up your decoys, it will 

 whirl round, and you will have some work to 

 turn it back again. Therefore, stand in the bow, 

 with your knees braced against the bulkhead or 

 sides of the boat, find paddle bow first as usual. 

 By so doing the boat will never of itself turn 

 the wrong way, and you may pick up your 

 decoys in a short time and with comparatively 

 little labor, when it would be impossible in the 

 manner first mentioned. 



Always pick up your leeward-most decoys first, 

 and, just before stooping to grasp each one, give 

 the boat an extra stroke ahead to keep up its 

 headway whilst winding the line. If you erro- 

 neously commence at the windward side of the 

 flock, many of the lines will invariably become 

 entangled in winding up, when those of the 

 windward decoys must often be pulled over 

 those nearest to leeward ; and in the event of 

 the boat's drifting back upon them and bunching 

 them together, as will unavoidably occur if the 

 decoys are placed as closely together as they 

 should be, before the snarled lines are sepa- 

 rated and wound up the boat may have been 





