258 



WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



won't ; but let me know, did you see them light there ? " 

 "No, I didn't," said I. "This is how I knew it; 

 yet, I didn't know it ; but I felt they ought to be there. 

 That island is perfectly familiar to me, and a great 

 place for ducks to sit in midday picking up gravel, or 

 sitting in the sun. To-day it is clear, but cold ; a slight 

 wind blowing from the northwest ; naturally they 

 would get out of the wind and sit in the sun. For an 

 hour before we got there, that island was constantly in 

 my sight. Not a hunter passed there, nothing to dis- 

 turb them, and I felt morally sure they would be there. 

 My jumping and killing the precise number at the 

 other island, prompted me to test fate a trifle further ; 

 so without malice aforethought, the scenting or smell- 

 ing of game was sprung on you. Had the birds not 

 been found, my surprise would of course have been 

 very complete, and I am afraid I should have claimed 

 the scent was lost by the ducks swimming off in the 

 water." 



The morning following this hunt we distributed 50 

 mallards among our friends. Had we hunted in a hap- 

 hazard manner, regardless of method, without calling 

 into service lessons that years of experience had taught 

 one of us, we would not have killed one-tenth of the 

 number we did. 



There are lessons to be learned in this article, which 

 should be committed to memory by every hunter. The 

 day so exceedingly beautiful, the frost so transparent, 

 the trees so gorgeous in their silvered coverings, the 

 sky, the water, the earth, all Nature in her brightest 

 garbs, caused one to involuntarily recognize the exist- 

 ence of the ever-living God. Then, when you hunt, 

 don't be selfish, and hunt merely for the game to be had ; 



