DUCKS IN THOUSANDS. 



259 



my shooting-ground with a very large supply of ammuni- 

 tion, and in two or three hours I had to cease, as my stock 

 was exhausted. My stand was in a field of Indian corn 

 that had been gathered into shocks, from the back of one 

 of which I took shelter from the blast as well as conceal- 

 ment. Never shall I forget the scene. The ducks came in 

 thousands, all flying before the wind, and if a dozen guns 

 had been there instead of one, abundant work would have 

 been found for all. On another occasion, in the same local- 

 ity, two friends of mine killed in two or three hours in the 



evening, and in an hour and a half the succeeding morning, 

 eighty-four brace of mallard duck. In the spring of 1866, 

 when in Iowa, the first day of thaw, I went for a stroll, 

 scarcely expecting to find game; but when I got on the 

 prairie land, I was perfectly astonished at the clouds of 

 wild fowl arriving from the south, some of the ponds being 

 so densely covered with duck that the surface could scarce- 

 ly be seen. These birds were all coming from the south, 

 where they had passed the winter. If any of our readers 

 intend to go in for work, and do not object to roughing it, 



