144 TWENTIETH CENTUKY CLASSICS 



River, at a place called Herring Creek, informs me that 

 one severe winter, he and another person broke a hole in 

 the ice about twenty by forty feet, immediately over a 

 shoal of grass, and took their stand on the shore in a hut 

 of brush, each having three guns well loaded with large 

 shot. The Ducks, which were flying up and down the 

 river in great extremity, soon crowded to this place, so 

 that the whole open space was not only covered with them, 

 but vast numbers stood on the ice around it. They had 

 three rounds, firing both at once, and picked up eighty- 

 eight Canvas-Backs, and might have collected more had 

 they been able to get to the extremity of the ice after the 

 wounded ones. In. the severe winter of 1879-80, the 

 grass on the roots of which these birds feed was almost 

 wholly destroyed in the James River. In the month of 

 January, the wind continued to blow from west-northwest 

 for twenty-one days, which caused such low tides in the 

 river that the grass froze to the ice everywhere, and, a 

 thaw coming on suddenly, the whole was raised by the 

 roots and carried off by the freshet. The next winter a 

 few of these Ducks were seen, but they soon went away 

 again; and, for many years after, they continued to be 

 scarce, and even to the present day, in the opinion of my 

 informant, have never been so plenty as before. 



" The Canvas-back, in the rich juicy tenderness of its 

 flesh and its delicacy of flavor, stands unrivaled by the 

 whole of its tribe in this or perhaps any other quarter of 

 the world. Those killed in the waters of the Chesapeake 

 are generally esteemed superior to all others, doubtless 

 from the great abundance of their favorite food which 

 these rivers produce. At our public dinners, hotels and 



