More about Wildfowl 91 



water that kept extremely dry, but instead of 

 water oozing in from sides and bottom, there was 

 a continual buzz and bubble of escaping air or 

 gas. This condition, curiously enough, remained 

 for some weeks. What gas it was that bubbled 

 forth I do not know, and I think none of us had 

 the hardihood to test its qualities with a match. 

 The chance of being oneself shot into the air in 

 the middle of a goose drive was probably too 

 painful to contemplate. 



Our levies having deposited the dead geese and 

 duck in an old water-filled kula, are soon off for 

 a drive in the opposite direction. The geese would 

 now be coming against the wind, and should come 

 both lower and slower. May I here venture on 

 a theory about that very interesting thing the 

 flight of wild geese ? Every one knows their V 

 formation a leader, and behind him each bird in 

 echelon. When flying in the huge multitudes I 

 have described and 10,000 is a moderate estimate 

 of the numbers of some of these gatherings 

 the same formation between individual birds is 

 generally maintained, though of course the V is 

 altogether lost. Now what is the explanation of 

 that echelon flight ? Must it not be that each bird 

 obtains some advantage from the flight of his 

 leader perhaps similar in effect to the assistance 

 a bicyclist gets from a pacemaker? Might not 



