464 DUCK SHOOTING, 



CALIFORNIA MARSH SHOOTING. 



Within a comparatively short distance from San 

 Francisco are great marshes bordering the bay, and 

 there are others at the junction of the Sacramento and 

 the San Joaquin rivers with Suisun Bay. These are of 

 great extent, that known as the Suisun Marsh being 

 about twenty miles long by ten wide, and a great re- 

 sort for snipe and wild fowl. This marsh was long ago 

 taken up and is under lease to shooting clubs, who hold 

 all the land. 



The two principal forms of shooting practiced here 

 are pond shooting, over decoys from a blind, and a 

 form of floating practiced by sculling a boat along the 

 narrow sloughs and leads which thread the marsh in 

 every direction. 



The ponds on which the shooting takes place vary in 

 size from small mallard holes and mud puddles to con- 

 siderable pools covering several acres. The different 

 ponds are connected by artificial ditches with the neigh- 

 boring sloughs, and sometimes the ponds are connected 

 in the same way. It is stated that in such ponds grows 

 the vallisneria, which is so favorite a food with all our 

 ducks. 



To such ponds resort swans, geese, and ducks of 

 many kinds. The shooting in such places does not 

 especially differ from such shooting elsewhere. The 

 gunner builds a blind of reeds and grass, and either sits 

 in the marsh, or, if that is too soft, he may sit in his 



