WILDFOWL SHOOTING IJST THE 

 WESTERN STATES. 



MY correspondents are numerous, and truly suffi- 

 ciently diversified, but, for all that, I nave heard from 

 them nothing upon the above subject, one that is 

 most interesting to all sportsmen that can afford to 

 visit foreign lands. 



I have travelled a good deal in my time, visiting the 

 Antipodes East, far East and West, so am not al- 

 together ignorant of the sport to be obtained in other 

 lands, but I have failed to find a country equal to 

 America for the cream of sport water-fowl shooting. 



But it is generally pretty trying work, so a man re- 

 quires to be young and " fit " to undertake it, and if 

 he be possessed with the constitution of a water- 

 spaniel, so much the better for himself. The reason 

 of this is that the " fowl " are always most numerous 

 in the most exposed places, and at the most trying 

 seasons of the year, viz., when autumn breaks into 

 winter, and when winter is about to give place to 

 spring, and the more boisterously, with low tempera- 

 ture, these changes are accomplished, the better are 

 the chances of sport. 



But before taking the field, or rather the " sloughs" 

 let me give a visitor to the Western States a few hints 

 on guns and dress, which, I flatter myself, will do him 

 good service, if attended to. We have our insular 

 prejudices, we have our continental dislikes, both are 

 founded upon experience, and are brought about by 

 peculiarities in the countries we have visited. In proof 

 of this, when I have shot across the Atlantic I have 



