WEALTH ON WINGS 



and to repeat, out of the whole five thousand miles 

 of waterway from Edmonton and round to Skag- 

 way, there was very, very little visible nesting 

 ground for wildfowl. This was a great surprise 

 to me, for, in common with almost all other Amer- 

 ican sportsmen, I was of the vague belief that 

 pretty much all that upper country was ex- 

 clusively devoted to raising ducks for us Ameri- 

 cans to shoot. 



The delta of the Mackenzie is quite a large region 

 say, a hundred miles by seventy-five covered 

 by scores of channels and occasional marshes or 

 lakes. Along the main channels, however, you will 

 see the banks rather sharp-cut through a deep, rich, 

 alluvial soil covered with heavy willows. We 

 passed through only the southern edge of the delta 

 but our local advice was pretty accurate. It ran to 

 the effect that ducks were scarcer than they had been 

 and that there never had been any vast, continuous 

 rookery or breeding ground in that part of the 

 world. 



In general it is at the mouths or deltas of these 

 great northern rivers that the largest breeding 

 grounds are found. It is there that the current loses 

 its velocity and through many ages has deposited 

 silt, out of which grow grasses and plants suitable 

 for food of the wildfowl. 



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