420 WILDFOWL AND WILD RICE. 



Chesapeake. This enormous land-locked sheet of water 

 has all the characteristics of an inland sea, with an ap- 

 proximate area of some 3000 square miles; * an examina- 

 tion of the chart shows that it is generally shallow; 

 and moreover is the recipient of a number of extensive 

 river systems, so that at its northern extremity its 

 waters, like those of the Baltic, no longer retain their 

 saltness, being only slightly brackish, and in some 

 parts almost fresh. It is in these localities that the 

 " duck-weed, " or plant known as the wild celery, 

 grows in the greatest luxuriance, and here in conse- 

 quence the mightiest flocks of wildfowl of every de- 

 scription are congregated; it would be too long, and 

 also unnecessary, to attempt to enumerate their various 

 species, though many people hold that at least one 

 of them, the red head (Anas Ferina), another deep 

 water diving duck which is also exceedingly numerous, 

 is quite as good for table use as the much belauded 

 canvas-back. It also lives mainly on the wild celery. 

 The wild rice (Zizania Aquaticd) is a fresh water 

 weed, or plant, growing in shallow streams, and around 

 the margins of ponds and lakes, throughout North 

 America, it is said from Northern Canada to Florida; 

 it is an annual grass which sometimes attains the 

 height of nine feet, and grows very thickly in many 

 rivers, where it thrives even in the brackish waters of 

 some of their estuaries; its grain can be utilized as a 

 bread stuff, and used to be largely used as such in 

 the old Indian times, but its chief value is as food for 

 waterfowl. There are tropical varieties of it, which 



* This bay is margined almost everywhere by large expanses of 

 shallow lagoons; separated from the broad water by islands, as well as 

 numerous very extensive river estuaries. The rise of the tides is but 

 small, often not over a foot. 



