Duck-shooting in Wermland, Sweden. 59 



you could get a pair of boots to come right up to the fork, and fit 

 the thigh tight, they might be useful. I never, however, had 

 a pair of water-boots even that came high over the knee, which 

 did not, after a few hours' wading, wrinkle down, so that 

 every step you took, the water flew up behind into the bend 

 of the knee, and ran down the leg till the feet were soon as wet 

 inside the boots as they would have been had you waded barefooted 

 and much more uncomfortable. However, as our best duck and 

 snipe and shooting is in August and September, when the water is 

 warm, a pair of flannel trousers, low shoes, and a change in the boat, 

 if one means camping out, is the very best dress ; for one never feels 

 chilly after wading in flannel. 



I don't care to boast of my own performances, for I never do 

 make a very heavy bag. I once killed in these rushes twenty-three 

 strong flyers in one day, and eleven snipe, but I saw a friend of 

 mine knock down twenty-eight full-grown ducks one after the 

 other. I did not shoot that day, for I wanted him to have the 

 sport. I fancy, however, if a man were to beat these rushes every 

 day (and a good duck-shooter should, because it makes no matter 

 to the birds in such a tract of rushes as this how much they are 

 shot at in the beginning of the season they never leave them ; 

 and, strangest of all is, that they do not become wild till about the 

 end of September, when, all at once they pack, and as soon as ever 

 a gun is fired, they rise in clouds and go right away), he might 

 average, with flight-shooting, twenty couples of ducks a vreek 

 throughout August and September ; and that's no bad work 

 for one gun. He would, however, kill most of his birds 

 at flight, especially in the end of the season. At this time 

 the ducks all appear to leave the swamp in the day where 

 they go to I never could make out ; but, I fancy, to the large open 

 waters. But they come back in hundreds at night to feed, and this 

 is the time I nail 'em. I poach the holes in the reeds with floating 

 trimmers in the day, and, as soon as I have got my night-lines all 

 out, and just before I can see the evening star, I go to a favourite 

 place, right in the line of flight, and set myself high and dry, and 



