3(50 THE WETTAR. 



storm. Most fortunately, however, she was anchored to 

 a perfectly smooth and gradually shelving rock, so that as 

 the waves increased, myself and boy — I having no other 

 attendant — were by degrees enabled to draw her higher 

 and higher up tlie rock, and somewhat beyond their reach ; 

 and though full of water, and sadly knocked about, 

 she happily escaped with but little injury — outwardly at 

 least — beyond the partial loss of her keel ; and as the 

 weather on the following day proved fine, we were there- 

 fore enabled to continue our voyage. 



To proceed. Another plan of shooting water fowl in the 

 Gothenburg and others of the Scandinavian " Skai'giirdar," 

 — one which we ourselves also occasionally adopted — is by 

 the aid of the so-called " Wettar,''^ or artificial decoy-birds. 

 These consist either of such as are stuffed — as, for example, 

 the Eider, the Long-tailed llareld, the Black Scoter, 

 the Merganser — or of blocks of wood so fashioned and 

 painted as to resemble them. Each Wette is attached, in 

 a squatting posture, to a small oval-shaped piece of board 

 or cork. Spring and autumn, the former especially, are 

 the proper seasons to bring these devices into play, as 

 from the fowl being then pairing, and the females on the 

 look-out for nesting-places, they are of course very much 

 more in motion. 



In the daytime the Eider, the Long-tailed Hareld, 

 and other diving birds, keej) much to the innermost 

 " Skjlrgard," and to the bays and inlets of the main- 

 land, where the water is shallower, and the facility of 

 obtaining food greater in consequence; but they pass 

 the night, for the most part, on the outermost of the 

 islands or on small isolated rocks, rising little above 

 the surface in the open sea beyond. During these their 

 morning and evening flights to and from their feeding- 

 grounds, they almost invariably pursue the same course. 

 This is noted by the fowler, who at the first break 



