236 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



eluded to hire him as an assistant, and the sum of one 

 dollar being offered for his services, he accepted it in the 

 promptest manner. We then paddled up stream until 

 we arrived in sight of the flocks of wild fowl which were 

 riding the wavelets under the shelter of a huge crag, and 

 chattering pleasantly to one another. Seeing that the 

 chances of bagging them on the land were better than 

 on the water, my companion decided to bear down on 

 them from the leeward in a canoe, while the Indian and 

 myself were to conceal ourselves in the bushes on shore, 

 and shoot them as they flew past us to the windward. 



Being anxious to secure all the swans I could, I asked 

 the Indian to load his musket heavily with buckshot, so 

 as to be able to make long shots, and he promised to 

 comply, if I would pay for the ammunition. I readily 

 assented to this proposition. Having taken our position 

 in a thicket close to the water, we were not there long 

 before the swans were sprung, and as the wind was blow- 

 ing heavily, they flew very low and partially sideways, 

 and when they came within range of our guns, we blazed 

 away at them. The red man was the first to open fire, 

 but the thundering report of his gun had hardly startled 

 tlie echoing hills before his scream accompanied it. On 

 looking at the birds he shot at, I saw pieces of legs, 

 feathers, and flesh flying about in the air. One glance 

 at these proved to me that he had been extraordinarily 

 liberal in the use of powder and shot, and had paid 

 dearly for it. I forgot all about his condition for a mo- 

 ment, as I was too much absorbed in my work to have 

 much consideration for anybody or anything just then, 

 and when the swans came within ten or fifteen yards of 

 me, I banged away at their heads, and succeeded in kill- 

 ing one, and wounding another so severely that it fell 

 into the water, not forty feet from the shore. 



Being under the impression that it was only Avinged, 

 and wishing to secure it alive, if possible, I made a rush 



