324 CANOE SHOOTING. 



nails, before he drives them in, so much the better. 

 Notwithstanding all that the boat-builders have said, 

 I now find that copper nails are the best. For dressing 

 and painting, vide directions hereafter given. 



This kind of canoe, although built for other purposes, 

 is, on the western coast, generally preferred, for shoot- 

 ing, to one of any other kind. It answers best, when 

 used (no matter whether by day or night), from low 

 water to half, and sometimes to full, flood. You manage 

 it thus : 



Sit down, on some straw or rushes, with your gun 

 by your side, and take with you a small Newfoundland 

 dog. Row about, till you can see or hear a flock of 

 wildfowl on the mud. To find them sitting, if by 

 night, look at first very low, so as to bring the surface 

 of the mud in contrast with the horizon, by which means 

 you will overlook the black edges of the creeks and 

 holes, instead of seeing, and perhaps mistaking them 

 for, birds. 



When you have rowed within three or four gun- 

 shots of the fowl, take in your oars, and reconnoitre the 

 creeks. Having ascertained which is likely to be the 

 best, lie down, and push along with the " setting-pole" 

 (or "gunning-spread"), and, while the mudbanks stand 

 above the little channels, you are so completely hid, that 

 you will seldom fail to get a shot, provided there is a 

 creek within reach of the birds, and you do not go 

 directly to windward of them *. 



* The decoymen can go to windward of the birds by means of the 

 smoke from a piece of dutch twf, or common peat, which, after 

 having it well dried, they are able to carry lighted in the hand for 

 the short time that is required to drive the wildfowl into the pipes. 

 Another recipe, of which some pretend to make a great secret, is a 



