580 DUCK SHOOTING. 



Germany and France, where hens' eggs are very cheap. 

 Albumen is used chiefly for food purposes, most of it 

 in the making of cakes and candies, and one pound, 

 worth from 48 to 50 cents, represents a product of 150 

 eggs, or about 4 cents a dozen. At the time when this 

 story was going the rounds, photography was extreme- 

 ly popular, and almost every one carried a camera. The 

 men who occupied themselves in retailing the story 

 about Alaska duck eggs declared that the most of the 

 albumen from these eggs was used in the manufacture 

 of sensitized paper. Yet a little inquiry showed that at 

 that time comparatively little albumen was used in pho- 

 tography, since gelatine and other materials had even 

 then almost entirely taken its place. 



This, then, was the conclusion of the whole matter : 

 Those who professed to have information on the sub- 

 ject were unable to substantiate the stories which they 

 told; the transportation companies have carried no 

 such eggs ; none have ever been received at the ports of 

 entry; the albumen trade knows nothing whatever 

 about them, and, in view of the total lack of evidence 

 to support the story, there is no doubt that it is a pure 

 invention. 



The situation is very well summed up by Mr. Wm. 

 W. Castle, of Boston, Mass., who, in a letter. in Forest 

 and Stream, said : "My opinion is that more eggs are 

 destroyed in the Mississippi Valley by the spring shoot- 

 ers — a thousand, or even ten thousand, to one — than it 

 would be possible to destroy in any collection that could 

 be carried out, even if eggs were worth $1 a dozen, at 



