BOATS. 309 



about three inches above the water. When choppy 

 waves threaten to engulf you they will be speedily re- 

 pelled by the combing of the pit. The waves at times 

 seem about to break in on you. Instinctively you draw 

 yourself together as one comes toward you ; it breaks 

 against the sides, overflows the decking, is warded off 

 by the combing, then rapidly down along the boat's 

 decking, and merrily trickles back into the water again, 

 not a drop going into the boat. There is a vast fund 

 of pleasure in hunting in one of these boats, that defies 

 pen description. An illustration will show what can be 

 done with them when other means fail. 



A few years ago in Goose Lake, in this county, Mr. 

 Ben Woodward and myself dropped in on the natives 

 unannounced, with one of these boats and twenty-five 

 decoys. When the inhabitants of the village saw us 

 they volunteered the information that "we wouldn't 

 kill a duck." Said there were some flying over the lake, 

 but came in high and pitched down in the centre of the 

 lake, and that no man could get them. We trimmed 

 our boat to represent a muskrat house, laid portions of 

 muskrat bed on the sides, pushed into grass about two 

 feet high, lay flat on our backs until the ducks got right 

 over our decoys, and that afternoon and the next fore- 

 noon bagged nearly 70 ducks. When we brought in 

 the birds the citizens were greatly astounded. We 

 were feted (at our own expense), and accorded the 

 freedom of the village. 



To build a duck-boat requires practical as well as 

 theoretical skill, and while I give in this article the 

 measurements requisite to build one such as I use, which 

 my experience has demonstrated to be the best in use, 

 I would not advise an inexperienced person to 



