THOUSANDS OF GEESE 205 



flocks from three to fifty, all making for the 

 feeding-ground. 



To say that we were kept busy loading, 

 shooting, and picking up, only faintly conveys 

 the excitement in our ice-boats the next 

 two hours. We got perfectly wild; and 

 who wouldn't, with any of the "shoot" in 

 him? 



I had seen wonderful exhibitions of game 

 on the North- West prairies, but the scene 

 here went far beyond in comparison. When 

 the flats bared so that the geese could wade, 

 and the boats, with their heavy cargoes, could 

 not approach them, they literally gathered by 

 the thousand, flocks joining them constantly. 

 These would feed for a while, then, with a 

 roar like thunder, would rise, circle, still rise, 

 circle, and still rise, then settle in the same 

 way, and feed again. What a sight ! What 

 a sight ! Never did I, although a sportsman 

 of fifty summers, ever see, or expect to see, 

 a sight at all approaching to what was before 

 me. There were all the birds that usually 

 were gathered in scores of harbours, congre- 

 gated within the compass of half a mile, 

 feeding and talking. A "pow-wow" of a 



