158 AMERICAN GAME. 



shores of North America, from the Bay of Boston to the 

 Balize. 



In the tepid waters of Florida, the great bay of Mobile, 

 the sea lakes of Borgne and Pontchartrain, and all along 

 the muddy shoals and alluvial flats of the lower Missis- 

 sippi, these aquatic races dwell in myriads during the 

 winter months, when the ice is thick even in the sea 

 bays of the Delaware and Chesapeake, and when all the 

 gushing streams and vocal rivulets of the Northern and 

 Middle States, are bound in frozen silence. In the 

 spring, according to the temperature of the season, from 

 the middle of April until the end of May, these migra- 

 tory tribes begin to visit us of the northern shores, from 

 the Capes of the Chesapeake, along all the river estua 

 ries, sea bars, lagoons, and land-locked bays, as they are 

 incorrectly termed, of Maryland and Delaware, the Jer- 

 sey shores and the Long Island waters, so far as to 

 Boston Bay, beyond which the iron-bound and rugged 

 nature of the coast deters them from adventuring, in the 

 great nights with which they infest our more succulent 

 alluvial shores and sea marshes. 



With the end of May, with the exception only of a few 

 loitering stragglers, wounded, perhaps, or wing-worn, 

 which linger after the departure of their brethren, they 

 have all departed, steering their way, unseen, at immense 

 altitudes, through the trackless air, across the mighty 

 continent, across the vast lakes of the north, across the 

 unreclaimed and almost unknown hunting-grounds of 



