LET US GO AFIELD 



ena seen on the ground; and Mr. Preble concerns 

 himself more with the species and the habits of the 

 species and less with the general totals of supply 

 and demand. 



By the time we had crossed the Rocky Mountains 

 on our trip it was late in July. By that time we 

 saw a great many young mallards beginning to fly ; 

 and at a point on the Porcupine River about a hun- 

 dred miles east of its junction with the Yukon we 

 saw rather large numbers of mallards. At one 

 or two of the bayous a gun or two might have had 

 a very good shoot; but in the old ducking days on 

 the Kankakee marsh, had we seen no more mallards 

 than we saw there on the Porcupine, we should not 

 have considered the flight by any means a good one. 



On the Yukon Flats, at the mouth of the Porcu- 

 pine River, there is supposed to be quite an extensive 

 breeding ground of wildfowl; but the Yukon be- 

 tween that point and Dawson was a swift stream, 

 broken into many channels, flowing between willow- 

 covered islands which did not look marshy, but, on 

 the contrary, at that time of year were quite dry 

 and without probable duck food to any great extent. 



Without doubt a large part of the California duck 

 life breeds along the upper Yukon, but I do not 

 think we were far enough down the river to get into 

 any very considerable breeding grounds. In short, 



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