300 SPORT INDEED 



at one time. But the wrecks and wreckage there 

 drew all manner of sailboats to the scene to get coal 

 and lumber, and thus the birds were continually dis- 

 turbed in their feeding. They were occasionally fired 

 on at long range from these sailboats and this har- 

 assed and frightened them, keeping them for hours on 

 the move. This, together with unfavorable winds and 

 storms, reduced the total bag for the season to one 

 hundred and ninety-seven brant. Such was the result 

 of the work of seven weekly parties, aggregating 

 fifty-seven sportsmen, with an average of eight to 

 each party, and, as our party bagged thirty-six, we 

 had no reason to complain. Of the one hundred and 

 ninety-seven killed, one hundred and three were young 

 birds and ninety-four were old ones. This proportion 

 of young birds ought to have made the shooting 

 better, as the latter (in the language of the president 

 of the club), " are less wary, more social and more 

 easily decoyed, and will carry off less lead than the 

 tough, old birds ; and then it often happens that the 

 elders are led by unsuspicious youth into places of 

 danger where it would be impossible to coax them 

 when separated; therefore the presence of so many 

 juvenile visitors is always a joy to the heart of the 

 sportsman." 



