just above your head, skimming along the 

 marsh. They settle in a hole, swim close up to the 

 windward shore, beneath the sedges, and, with 

 their heads under their wings, go fast asleep. 

 And as they sleep the ice begins to form first, 

 along their side of the hole, where the water is 

 calmest; then, extending out around them, it 

 becomes a hard sheet across the surface. 



A night that will freeze a salt-hole is not one 

 in which there is likely to be much hunting 

 done by man or beast. But I have been on the 

 marshes such nights, and so have smaller and 

 more justified hunters. It is not a difficult feat 

 to surprise the sleeping ducks. The ice is half 

 an inch thick when you come up, and seals the 

 hole completely, save immediately about the 

 bodies of the birds. Their first impulse, when 

 taken thus at close range, is to dive ; and down 

 they go, turning in their tracks. 



Will they get out? One may chance to 

 strike the hole which his warm body kept 

 open, as he rises to breathe ; but it is more 

 likely that he will come up under the ice, and 

 drown. I have occasionally found a dead duck 

 beneath the ice or floating in the water of a 



[13] 



