BRANT SHOOTING. 303 



sharing equally with the residents in all the game killed. 

 A shanty, or house, 12x16 feet, was built and furnished. 

 This, however, was found, a few years later, to be too 

 small for the convenience of the members and invited 

 guests, and it was enlarged to double its original ca- 

 pacity, giving ample room for reading, sleeping, dining, 

 cooking, storage, etc. 



We will now suppose the shanty to be in perfect run- 

 ning order, three boxes — the "Mud Hole," "North 

 Bar" and "Gravel" — generously bestowed in their re- 

 spective bars, fifteen live decoys in the pen at the sunny 

 side of the shanty, ready for use. 



As the day has been calm, the bars are in good condi- 

 tion, and the prospects are favorable that Monday 

 morning will usher in a week of grand sport. It will 

 be high tide at 7.15 a. m., and the boxes must be occu- 

 pied by 5 o'clock. The alarm-clock, which acts as a sort 

 of reveille, is set at 4 o'clock, and brings every man to 

 his feet. A hasty repast is improvised, while each gun- 

 ner adorns himself with his coarse, heavy wool clothing, 

 oil suit, long boots and woolen mittens. Three decoys 

 are placed in each basket, and it is astonishing with 

 what precision the residents will seize the particular 

 birds that are to be worked on the same line, as there 

 is no perceptible difference in the size, plumage or 

 voices of the sex. The boxes are distant from the 

 shanty as follows : "North Bar," about a mile ; "Mud 

 Hole," half a mile, and "Gravel," one-third of a mile. 

 As the North Bar is lowest, the tide, of course, 

 reaches it first ; and as the distance from the shanty is 



