420 DUCK SHOOTING. 



ners, extending out to sea nearly a mile from the point 

 Usually lots are drawn for position, those nearest the 

 shore not being so desirable as those farther out. An 

 effort is made to be on the ground before daylight, as 

 the shooting begins with the earliest dawn. Often, 

 therefore, the gunners are obliged to rise at two or 

 three o'clock in the morning, to make their way to the 

 shore, get into their boats and perhaps pull a distance 

 of three or four miles before reaching the ground. At 

 other times all of them will congregate in some barn 

 near the starting point and sleep there, and the start 

 will be made by all together. 



Warm, pleasant weather is desirable for this sport, 

 although it is true that the birds fly best and afford the 

 easiest shooting when the wind blows hard and the 

 weather is rough and boisterous. But it is often no 

 joke to pull one of these little flat-bottomed skiffs three 

 or four miles through the darkness against a head wind 

 and through a rough sea, and even after the gunner is 

 anchored, if the wind blows hard, the work is wet and 

 uncomfortable, and the reports of the guns are punctu- 

 ated by the angry slapping of the skiffs upon the water, 

 as they rise and fall with the sea. Even if the water is 

 calm it may be bitterly cold, and ice may be making 

 along the edges of the bay, so that after the gunner has 

 reached his stand, and thrown over his anchor, and the 

 labor of rowing is at an end, he soon chills, slaps his 

 arms vigorously and dances jigs on the ice in the bot- 

 tom of his boat. After one has reached his position 

 and thrown over his anchor, it is interesting to listen to 



