CHESAPEAKE BAY DUCKING. 475 



rivers at the head go lower down the bay for their 

 shooting. There has been much complaint among the 

 gunners that the feeding grounds in the rivers — espe- 

 cially those in the upper parts of the streams — are often 

 covered with mud brought down by floods, and that 

 the ducks can be found only at the mouths of the rivers 

 or on the bay. The fact seems to be that in the early 

 autumn the ducks are usually found at the mouths of 

 the rivers and in the wider waters, but in the spring, 

 after the breaking up of the ice, the ducks work up the 

 streams, and commonly bed in the streams just before 

 they go off to the North. It may well enough be 

 imagined that they have used up most of the grass and 

 food from the open waters during autumn and winter, 

 and that as soon as the streams are accessible they work 

 up them in search of food. In the rivers emptying 

 into the upper part of the bay the ducks are continually 

 harassed, for on both shores are skirmish lines of gun- 

 ners trying to kill them. On all these streams long 

 blinds are built out from every point running into the 

 river, so that, to escape being shot at, a bird would be 

 obliged to follow the windings of the channel. 



The Carroll's Island Club occupies what was in old 

 times perhaps the most celebrated ducking ground on 

 Chesapeake Bay, Carroll's Island is bounded by the 

 Chesapeake Bay, and the Seneca, Saltpeter and Gun- 

 powder rivers. It is fourteen miles from Baltimore, 

 and has an area of about twelve hundred acres. Up 

 to about 1820 it had been owned for about one hun- 

 dred years by the Carroll family, but in 1822 it was 



