1 12 The Life Worth Living 



that stands far out on the mud-flats near the 

 edge of a ship channel. It was first stuck 

 there by Uncle Nathan Cobb, the king of 

 wild fowl hunters in Tidewater Virginia, 

 nicknamed the "Old Boss" by his admirers. 



This particular bay has 4,000 acres of mud- 

 flats on which the wild celery grass grows, 

 furnishing rich food for the birds. There 

 are many blinds of cedar bushes stuck over 

 its wide .sweep, but the old Boss blind is yet 

 the king of them all. It was placed there 

 fifty years ago with consummate skill, in the 

 track of the brant and ducks, and all the 

 ingenuity of rival hunters has never been 

 able to place a blind anywhere in that 4,000 

 acres to interfere with the flight of birds that 

 pass it in stormy weather. 



The tide was just right. It made high 

 water at daylight. This gave us the whole 

 of the ebb tide, the low water and the first 

 movement of the flood tide for shooting. 

 The tides are right for blind shooting on the 



