THE DROWNED LANDS. 143 



up at the time, and fired, but from the rocking of the unsteady 

 canoe he missed, as before. 



" What a shame, Doctor ! I shall not ride with you." 



" Try him, some one." 



" He 's too far away ! " said Jackson, with his gun half way to 

 his shoulder. 



" Shoot him, Mike ? " said Miss Jackson, turning to where the 

 hunter sat in his canoe. 



Mike passed the back of his hand quickly across his forehead, 

 as he was wont sometimes to do when in earnest, and raised his 

 rifle to his shoulder. A second of pause, and the crack of the 

 piece sounded. The duck had arisen perpendicularly until it had 

 reached a height that gave it free passage over the reeds, and then 

 takiDg its direction, was bearing away in a straight line, gradually 

 decreasing in size as its velocity increased. At the report of 

 Mike's rifle it fell over and over, striking the water with a splash, 

 while in the air where it was flying one or two feathers floated 

 away on the wind. 



" Well done, that ! " cried Jackson. 



Lou said nothing, but her kindling eye rested on the marks- 

 man, while a smile lit her whole face, and the party separated for 

 the hunt. 



The Drowned Lands were formed by the sea banking up with 

 a sandbar the outlet of a stream that ran through a low country. 

 This natural dam flooded the lowlands on either side for several 

 miles, and the soil being sandy, with a slight deposit of alluvial 

 matter from the descending fresh waters, many varieties of grass 

 and aquatic plants sprang up, and formed attractive food for the 

 myriads of water-fowl that here passed the winters. Patches of 

 cane grew on the marshy land not yet covered with water. Osiers 

 and rushes sprung from the shallow water, and a long grass, with 

 a tassel like the onion, opened its crown and scattered its oily 

 seeds over the water. Now and then a floating log, or some still 

 living bulb that had come down the stream had taken root in the 

 shallows, and formed an island, on which rose one or two trees, 

 and a rank vegetation of vines and grass. On the dead upper 

 limbs of these trees the ahnega and other species of cormorants 



