CANADA GOOSE. 263 



feels afloat the healthful exercise in the bracing 

 air the extent of prospect, and the lurking de- 

 sire for burning friar Bacon's astounding com- 

 pound in something of a little larger calibre than 

 your snipe gun, are amply sufficient to drive oif 

 ennui, malaise, or any other moping malady 

 with a French name, which fashionable flesh is 

 heir to. Besides this, you have the wary game 

 ahead, and that argus-eyed, grizzly-pated mortal 

 astern, with stores and stores of fowling experi- 

 ence under his wild and weather-beaten front, if 

 so you have tact enough to draw him out. It is 

 rather superfluous, to say nothing of savoring a 

 little of self-conceit, for some sporting writers of 

 the day to expatiate at such remarkable length, 

 on the dreadful hardships and direful dangers of 

 duck-shooting. . . 



To listen to such hyperborean arguments as 

 " pelting rains," "driving snows," "whistling 

 winds," and "freezing waters," followed up by 

 "wardrobes of water-proof coats," "legions of 

 stout hearts," and "life preservers;" one would 

 almost suppose that they were bound on a cruise 

 to Nova Zembla, or the North Pole ; whereas all 

 this; comical parade of old winter's icy attributes 

 shrinks into mere verbiage, when compared with 

 the exulting sense of the real thing itself. Give 



