THE FIRE ISLANDS. 101 



On going to the spot, he was found fallen with his 

 face in the water. His gun, partly reloaded, lay 

 beside him. He had evidently seen a deer and fired 

 at him and missed. The excitement had brought on 

 an epileptic fit, and before he had finished re-charg- 

 ing his gun he had fallen. Having pitched forward 

 into the water, he was drowned before he could re- 

 cover from the fit. 



A Frenchman from the city, standing here one day, 

 saw a large buck come leaping down the stream, 

 tossing his huge antlers in the air. Without firing, 

 he threw down his gun and gave chase, thinking in 

 his simplicity that the deer could not possibly get 

 through the tangled woods with his branching horns, 

 and he could take him alive. 



As I stood beside the stream, from the distant sea 

 came the constant dull report of fire arms. It was 

 an excellent day for duck shooting on the water, and 

 up and down the shore, for eight or ten miles, it was 

 an incessant explosion of fire arms. Those who sup- 

 ply the New York market with ducks have a curious 

 way of taking them. A box just large enough to 

 contain and float a man as he lies on his back is 

 pushed four or five miles out to sea in some bay, sup- 

 ported by two flat boards that spread out like wings 

 on either side, to break the waves that would other- 

 wise dash over it. Anchoring this in some convenient 

 spot, they lie down, and throwing out their decoy 

 duck (made of wood), attract every flock that passes 

 by to the spot. As they wheel around and stoop to 

 the water, the unseen hunter fires his huge double- 

 10 



