A GREAT MISSISSIPPI DUCK-PASS. 379 



Along the vallies of both these rivers accordingly 

 numerous and extensive flights of various kinds of 

 migrants steer their course. * We have had opportunities 

 of observing these flights on both these rivers, and as a 

 young man have waited for the wildfowl on a celebrated 

 " Duck Pass " in an extensive swamp near New Madrid, 

 in the State of Missouri, on the Mississippi. Here the 

 sport at that time (about 1860) was magnificent, and a 

 sportsman could fire practically as long and as often as his 

 shoulder would stand the recoil of his gun, and could 

 kill ducks and geese of almost every kind which visited 

 those regions. 



Professional hunters for supplying the markets of 

 St. Louis and other large towns, at that time used 

 annually to watch for the flights as they passed along 

 this great swamp in autumn, and used to kill immense 

 numbers of all kinds of fowl. We attached ourselves 

 on the occasion to which we refer to a party of these 

 men, who intimately knew every yard of the ground, 

 and were by them received as a welcome guest, on 

 terms of handing over to them at the end of the day 

 the birds we did not want for our own use. This we 

 were quite willing to do in return for the magnificent 

 sport thus obtained, and the valuable help and information 

 these men were only too happy to afford. We used 

 to be at our stands, on dry islets in the middle of the 

 swamp, before dawn, and from that time and for several 



* Mr. Leffingwell for instance states that the wild pigeons annually 

 flew up the valley of the Mississippi, following the river in its windings, 

 in their migrations to their nesting grounds, in such immense flocks 

 that "to one who has never seen wild pigeons in their flight, neither 

 the tongue nor pen can show its beauties, for when they skim over 

 the ancient trees the air is alive with flitting colours : the world is on 

 the move and the very sky is filled with gladness (Shooting on Upland, 

 Marsh, and Stream, by W. B. Leffingwell, 1890, pp. 218 to 224). 



