BOATS. 305 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



BOATS. 



No duck-hunter can consider his hunting outfit com- 

 plete without a boat. It doesn't matter whether he is 

 in the vicinity of water, where a boat may be used 

 to advantage, or whether he lives far from ponds 

 of considerable size, lakes, or rivers. If he expects to 

 hunt ducks and do so with success, he should have 

 a boat. The fact that he owns an excellent re- 

 triever does not alter the case. Perhaps this is putting 

 the matter almost too strong, but my desire is to impress 

 on the mind of the beginner that to wage war success- 

 fully he must be properly accoutred. We can easily 

 imagine spots where most excellent duck-shooting 

 may be had in corn-fields, small, grassy prairie ponds, 

 marshes and like places, when a boat is not a necessity 

 on the contrary, an inconvenience. But such places 

 as these are the exception and not the rule, and no 

 matter how good a dog one has, in overflow, points 

 over decoys and in large marshes, and especially in 

 deep and swift water, the hunter finds himself at great 

 disadvantage unless he has a boat at hand. A dog at 

 such places is also at times a necessity, but a boat i 

 desirable to reach the feeding grounds, or a point 

 where the flight is constantly passing over, or to pass 

 over and across a deep stream, and finally locate the 

 hunter where ducks are having their midday frolic and 



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