SHOOTING FROM A HOUSE-BOAT, 443 



it was my fortunate privilege to spend a few days in 

 September. 



To the north and west lay Grand Island, distant 

 about three miles. Above its rounding hills and flank- 

 ing the lake shore, far as the eye could reach to the 

 south, loomed the silent Adirondacks, grand and 

 sphinx-like in repose. The play of light and shadow 

 gave a wondrous depth of tone to the scene. Even the 

 wandering clouds seem to linger with a soft caress 

 about the mountain tops, reaching out with long, filmy 

 streamers from summit to summit, leaving each slowly, 

 regretfully, as though parting with an old friend. 



The use of live decoys was a feature of duck shooting 

 that was unfamiliar to me, and I looked forward with 

 impatience to the day when Elmer was to initiate me. 

 The decoys were sturdy specimens of black duck, 

 nearly pure wild blood, and certainly their markings 

 were exactly similar to those of their wild brethren. If it 

 were not for a certain sluggishness of movement, due 

 possibly to their having spent the summer in the barn- 

 yard among the plebeian ducks and chickens, it would 

 be almost impossible to distinguish them from the wary 

 thoroughbreds that frequent the lake. 



The manner of working with them is as follows : A 

 small platform, or log, is placed some 20 yards from the 

 blind in front, its top just flush with the surface of the 

 water. 



A decoy is tethered by a string to a peg firmly thrust 

 into the hard sand of the flats, about 6 feet distant, the 

 string being just long enough to allow of the decoy 



