300 DUCK SHOOTING. 



The planting of the boxes is a job no one man can 

 perform. A water-tight box, large enough to accom- 

 modate three persons, must be about six feet long, 

 three and a half wide, and two and a half deep. One 

 half of this is buried in the flats ; the other is hidden by 

 sand being wheeled and piled up around it. Nor is 

 this all — a bar twenty or thirty yards long and two feet 

 high must be made and maintained, for the decoys to 

 run on and for the wild ones to assemble upon. The 

 sand must be taken at low tide from some little dis- 

 tance, so as to leave the flats and bar moderately smooth 

 and natural. 



There is an enormous tendency in this Cape Cod 

 sand to seek a dead level. Three hundred wheelbarrow 

 loads may be to-day piled up to form a bar, which a 

 high tide and wind will to-morrow send back to its nor- 

 mal condition of inherent dead level. Early in the sea- 

 son, before the bars are consolidated, every high wind 

 and tide does more or less damage to the bars, which 

 must be repaired before the box can be used, as no 

 brant will come near when it is in sight. Almost every 

 newcomer volunteers a plan for preserving the bars, 

 such as bags of sand, brush or stone deposits, piles 

 driven around, concrete and canvas coverings. Some 

 of these have been tried, but, on the whole, without 

 success. 



Another desideratum in branting is live decoys. No 

 visionary enthusiast need lay the flattering unction to 

 his soul that without these, or with wood decoys alone, 

 he will meet any degree of success. Decoys are usually 



