The IVater-fowl of the Pacific Coast 561 



one in the party must know the country, or 

 thousands of acres of the finest duck ground 

 would He unsuspected. Near the river the land 

 is very flat, and the mountains that lie so dreamily 

 on the horizon are the boundaries of many a 

 league of desert. Near its mouth the river widens 

 out into great flats of fine alluvium that in the 

 intensely dry air, dry even at the edge of the 

 gulf, make the most marvellous mirage, which will 

 show you — at shooting distance, too — all the 

 little lakes filled with ducks, cranes, and snipe you 

 want. On these flats you will find many waders 

 driven from the shore by the great tide of this 

 section and can bag all you wish, but the grand 

 sight is on the salt shores when the tide is out. 

 Miles up the mouth of the river snowy pelicans 

 sailing high in great flocks warn you that you 

 are nearing some large body of water, while sand- 

 hill cranes floating far above them, ducks whiz- 

 zing here and there, with geese whitening or 

 darkening the horizon, tell you there is some 

 feed in this country outside of the salt shores. I 

 have found sloughs here out of which the ducks 

 and geese could not be driven by any amount of 

 shooting, yet with hard bottoms, very uniform 

 depth of water, and all the conditions for ideal 

 shooting. In the immense reeds that lined all 

 the water and grew far out into it, I had an end- 

 less choice of blinds. So plenty was the game 



