IVHA T AiVD WHERE. 5 



ern shore down to the present day, gunning has been 

 good here. In the fall of the year, when storms drive 

 them from their northern feeding grounds, these birds, the 

 CEdeviia perspicillata, 3.x\d several other kinds journey to 

 the south along our way. 



The incessant popping of guns in the early morning an- 

 nounces to the distant villagers that flocks of these black 

 feathered and gray birds are stopped in their flight by the 

 lead pellets of some boatmen anchored near their decoys. 



Birds varying in size from a peep to a wild goose make 

 game for sporting men, and constitute a feature of the 

 town. 



But sporting birds of another style, with white wings 

 after the model of Burgess or of Herreshoff, gather in 

 flocks within our narrow harbor, many of them bearing 

 the colors of the Cohasset Yacht Club. From the dignity 

 of an international racer like the Shadow, down to the 

 flit-about "half-raters," they all bring thoughts and men to 

 the theme of Cohasset. 



But these playthings, neat and smart, are a modern 

 parody of the sober commerce of former 3'ears, when 

 fleets of sloops and schooners warped their heavy hulks 

 up to the various wharves, and poured out merchandise or 

 mackerel or codfish in countless quintals. 



These ocean carrier birds are long since extinct, and 

 now have only the province of memory to themselves. 

 The wharves have been toppling one by one into the sea, 

 and the few that are left sigh for the friends and the 

 burdens of former years. 



And if the fishes as well as wharves could reminisce, 

 they would ponder upon modern depravity ; for in the 

 good old days of their ancestors, there was a familiar jour- 

 ney for them up the channel of the Gulf and on up the 

 fresh water of Bound Brook, where the spawn could be 

 laid. But now the fish that swim the old way are a meager 

 mess. 



