562 DUCK SHOOTING. 



necessity which imphed long daily journeys over open 

 water, which was often rough, and it has often been 

 out when the whole fleet of marsh boats were storm- 

 bound. 



The birch canoe is a creature of the past. The dug- 

 cut is the aboriginal boat of the South. A queer little 

 craft is the St. Francis River (Missouri) dug-out, and 

 this is the type, too, of the boats used on the great New 

 Madrid duck marsh and in much of Arkansas. 



x; 



SASSAFRAS DUG-OUT. 



This boat is made of sassafras, and its size depends 

 much upon the size of the tree handy to the builder. 

 The boat is only 10 feet long and about 10 inches deep, 

 and as wide as the tree was. It is perfectly flat on top, 

 the ends being simply spoon-shaped. It has no seats. 

 For leakiness and tipsiness it is hard to beat. 



A very highly finished and graceful dug-out is the 

 little Mexican pirogue, which parts the waters before 

 the paddle of the hunter of the far Southwest. Our illus- 

 tration is taken from a little boat made by some Latin 

 hand near Vera Cruz, Mexico. This pretty little dug- 



