. PASS SHOOTING. 323 



day at least, though the morning started in very fair 

 and warm. 



We found that a series of pits had been dug along the 

 ridge, a few feet below the summit, deep enough so that 

 the shooter would be concealed when he crouched down. 

 In these pits we saw many old shells, but these were 

 weather-beaten and showed to be those of last year. 

 We were the first to shoot on this wonderful pass in the 

 wonderful duck year of 1897. 



Gokey took the furthest pit, Bowers next to him, 

 then myself, then the Chief, who thus was furthest to 

 the left as he faced to the west, from which direction 

 the first flight came. We hurried under many passing 

 flocks as we trotted into the firing line, and as soon as 

 we got located each began to shoot. The ducks were 

 most accommodating, and came to us at first in a vast 

 mass, out of which it was next to impossible to pick out 

 any individual birds. The speed of the flight was ter- 

 rific, and the hiss of the wings cutting, low and close or 

 whispering high overhead, was never absent from the 

 ear. Nor was there absent the steady cracking of the 

 guns. Gokey's regular double report, mingled with 

 the cornsheller activity of Bowers' repeating Winches- 

 ter, smote my ear on the right, while nearby on the 

 left the sharp crack of the Chief's little i3-gauge 

 sounded incessantly. Not one shot out of four landed 

 its game, but, none the less, there was a series of heavy 

 thumps all about us, more especially to the right of the 

 firing line, where the two Dakota men were in action. 



After a while we had a little let up and I looked over 



