266 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



about this period a few stragglers are occasionally 

 met with in the Delaware We have, ourselves, 

 been paddled within gunshot of single indivi- 

 duals of the former variety, near the old locality 

 mentioned by Wilson, between Red Bank and 

 Gloucester Point. Large numbers are killed by 

 the men of Havre de Grace on their first day's 

 excursion ; they are then, however, compara- 

 tively thin and tasteless, but soon begin to im- 

 prove in condition by feeding upon the valisi- 

 neria, which gives the true epicurean flavor to 

 their flesh. The immense multitudes, which, 

 in Wilson's time, covered acres and acres of the 

 Susquehanna, and produced a noise resembling 

 thunder as they rose in a body, are no longer 

 seen ; occasionally they are observed in the dis- 

 tance, darkening a portion of the sky, in a man- 

 ner which recalls the descriptions of departed 

 days ; but there is little doubt that from local 

 causes, the number of the choicest ducks which 

 visit these waters are decreasing year after year. 

 Among these causes may be mentioned the in- 

 troduction of steam navigation, the relative 

 changes which are taking place on the shores of 

 the river and bay, consequent upon an increase 

 of population and trade, and the annoyances to 

 which the ducks are subjected, from the opera- 



