38 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



the broad-bills, they had taken their departure for 

 more hospitable regions. My want of success a few 

 days before caused me to doubt if better results could 

 be obtained on this occasion, but being aware that 

 H-^ was better posted on these matters than any 

 man in the vicinity, I shouldered my ten-bore, strad- 

 dled my Indian pony, and started for what he con- 

 sidered the most appropriate place for doing havoc. 

 On reaching the confines of the prairie, we found that 

 duck had come in, and in myriads. In no direction 

 could we gaze without seeing flights in those strange 

 mathematical figures which they always assume when 

 on the wing. (Query Are they not proficients in 

 Euclid ?) We at once held a council of war, and 

 determined to leave our steeds (having first spread a 

 horse blanket on each to protect them from the bitter 

 blast ; for every true votary of Diana is humane^ 

 though the virgin goddess herself displayed but little 

 of this virtue to the unfortunate Actaeon), and after 

 striking the wet land, to separate, one to take the 

 right side and the other the left. My clothes, through 

 chance, were admirably suited for our work, being 

 composed of that common coloured velveteen which so 



much resembles withered grass, while H ? s were 



dark and conspicuous ; without doubt, his inattention 

 to colour being caused by the lightness of his pocket 



