A]N T D OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



rapidly delivered, dropped three of them into the 

 water, mutilated beyond recognition. This was 

 the climax ; the idea of killing birds on the wing, 

 with a rifle, was something these men had never 

 before heard of, and two or three examined my cart- 

 ridges to see if they were not loaded with shot, 

 instead of bullets. When they found this suspicion 

 was groundless they were beside themselves with 

 wonder and admiration of the strange arm. As a 

 matter of fact, it required no particular skill to kill 

 the gulls on the wing, for they were the large gray 

 variety, and frequently came within twenty or thirty 

 feet of me, so that anyone who could kill them with 

 a shotgun could do so with a rifle. 



Finally the steamer came in and I went aboard. 

 The train arrived soon after and several of its passen- 

 gers boarded the boat. The gulls were now hover- 

 ing about the steamer, picking up whatever particles 

 of food were thrown overboard from the cook-room. 

 One old Irishman, who had come in on the train 

 from the interior wilds, walked out on the quarter 

 deck and looking at them intently for a few minutes, 

 turned to me and inquired : 



" Phwat kind of burds is thim geese ? " 

 " Yes," I said, "thim's geese, I reckon." 

 "Well, be gorry, if I had a gun here I'd shoot 

 some o'thim" ; and he went and told his companions 

 "there was a flock of the tamest wild geese out thare 

 ye iver sawed. " 



The return journey to Portland was without inci- 

 dent. There I boarded the steamer and spent 

 another delightful day on the broad bosom of the 

 Columbia river, winding up among the grand basaltic 



