384 DUCK SHOOTING, 



this and raising it on his shoulder, jumped ashore and 

 carried it into the cane out of sight and left it there. I 

 handed out on to the marsh the different articles needed 

 in the blind, until at length nothing was left in the skiff 

 except her furniture and the decoys. Then we carried 

 the things up back of where the blind was to be made, 

 and while I began to arrange matters there, John re- 

 turned to the skiff and pushed it off to put out his 

 decoys. 



These were piled in the skiff on either side of the cen- 

 tre-board trunk, and there were perhaps in all seventy- 

 five of them. The lines by which their weights were 

 attached were 10 feet long. Using his pushing oar, 

 John moved his boat about 20 yards from the point, 

 and then thrusting the oar down into the mud, tied his 

 painter to it by a clove hitch, and picking up the decoys 

 began to throw them overboard. He rapidly unwound 

 the line from each, and then holding the decoy in one 

 hand and the line about 2 or 3 feet above the weight in 

 the other, he tossed them in all directions about the 

 boat. It seemed to be very quickly and carelessly done, 

 but there was no lack of care in it. When all that were 

 needed had been thrown out it was seen that the head 

 decoys were well up to windward of the blind, while the 

 others were strung along from them to leeward, so that 

 the last of the decoys were just a little to leeward of the 

 blind. About opposite the windward decoys, but a lit- 

 tle inside — toward the marsh — from them, were put the 

 three wooden goose decoys. The finishing touch was 

 to set out the live decoys — three in number, two ducks 



