242 DUCK SHOOTING. 



wind has any sweep he is sure to get wet and may 

 even be swamped ; or if it should happen that he guns 

 in a locaHty where there are wide flats which may be 

 overlaid by a skim of ice, too thick to be pushed through 

 with a boat, yet hardly strong enough to bear one's 

 weight, there is danger of a wetting, if not of some- 

 thing worse; for the mud is deep and sticky, and he 

 who is once mired in it will escape only with difficulty 

 and discomfort. 



In old times it was taken for granted that the duck 

 shooter should be uncomfortable, but of late years we 

 have largely changed that. The older gunners who 

 in their youth thought nothing of shivering all day in 

 a thin coat under the icy wind, or of standing for hours 

 waist deep in the water, when the flight was on, or of 

 lying out where the flying spray reached them and 

 froze as it touched their garments, now do none of 

 these things. They provide themselves with thick, 

 warm clothing, and with overgarments of rubber. 

 They take lunches with them and sometimes even carry 

 small stoves in boat or blind by which to warm their 

 food or themselves if the weather becomes too bad. 



But with all these added comforts has come one great 

 drawback which outweighs them all ; this is the great 

 scarcity of fowl. In old times, given suitable weather 

 conditions, duck shooting on most of our waters was 

 likely to be successful. Now, even with the best of 

 weather, the chances are against success. 



In the pages that follow I have endeavored, by means 

 of description and accounts of shooting trips, to give a 



