146 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



through which its pursuit was leading us was strikingly peculiar. 

 The level waste of sedge extended beyond the vision, waving in 

 the wind. The constant opening and closing of watery passages, 

 the little reed-locked lakes, the tortuous course we were obliged to 

 follow, the sameness of the grouping of the reeds and little islets, 

 repeated over and over again till the mind was all afloat as to 

 locality and distance ; the weird trees with their dead and naked 

 arms, and the occasional mass of broken reeds and matted drift- 

 wood that in the summer had formed the alligator's lair, all con- 

 tributed to impress the mind with a feeling of strangeness and 

 solitude. The wild birds, too, were unwontedly familiar in their 

 demeanour. Marsh hens ran over the drifts before the boat, and 

 gulls came screaming around us. 



About three miles from where we had entered the Drowned 

 Lands, we came to the edge of open water, and found a large lake. 

 Before entering it, a glance ahead showed the farther end of the 

 pond literally covered with ducks. It was impossible, being on 

 the same level, to tell how many there were, but there seemed 

 acres of them. A hurried council was called to decide how they 

 were best approached, and after two or three plans had been pro- 

 posed, it was settled that we should try and paddle around on the 

 farther side of the pond so as to be near the flock, and then take 

 our chances of their coming over us, as they probably might when 

 alarmed by the firing in the other boats. So with much care as to 

 the noise we might make, and some self-control in not firing at 

 single ducks that would rise close by us, we ultimately got around 

 the flock, so as to place them between us and the other boats. We 

 pulled our canoe into the thickest of the grass that completely 

 sheltered us, and from where I sat I could see the ducks lying on 

 the open water, moving hither and thither, and diving down for 

 the eel-grass below the surface. We recognised them as the same 

 flock of teal that came over at the early dawn. It was a beautiful 

 thing to see so much graceful life so bountifully supplied and 

 protected by its own instincts in the solitude. 



Away down the marsh came the frequent boom ! boom ! of my 

 comrades' guns, but it did not seem to interfere with the comfort 

 of the ducks, who still fed on, though keeping out of shot from 



