WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 249 



on tliis point: "In following Wild Fowl, it is easier to get 

 within twenty yards of them by going to leeward, than a hun- 

 dred and fifty directly to ivindivard, so very acute is their sense 

 of smelling^'' This fact of their being able to scent an enemy a 

 long distance off is well known to the men employed in attend- 

 ing on the decoy ponds of England and France; and, for the 

 purpose of destroying or counteracting the odor emanating 

 from their persons, alwaj^s hold a piece of burning peat in their 

 mouths when visiting their nets. 



DISTANCES ON THE WATER. 



It is very difficult for the inexperienced to judge of distances 

 on the water, and the eye is consequently often deceived on 

 such occasions; and young Sportsmen not unfrequently fire 

 away at Wild Fowl securely feeding far beyond the reach of a 

 gun double or treble the caliber of the one he is using, and then 

 expresses great astonishment that the load should have fallen 

 far short of the mark, or, perhaps, have scattered harmlessly in 

 the very midst of the intended victims. Experience and obser- 

 vation will alone correct this fault. 



VELOCITY OF FLIGHT. 



When Wild Fowl are flying against the wind, it causes them 

 to fly low and closer together than when going with it. The 

 velocity with which Ducks fly is very great, and argues strongly 

 the necessity of having the best of guns and ammunition to be 

 successful in this kind of sport. The barrels of Duck guns 

 should be of sufficient caliber and length to bear a large pro- 

 portion of powder, so as to throw the shot thickly and with 

 great force to a long distance. Under ordinary circumstances, 

 unassisted by the wind. Ducks fly at the rate of eighty to one 

 hundred miles an hour, as has often been proven by actual ex- 

 periment; and the following plan, adopted by Major Cartwright, 

 to ascertain this fact to his own satisfaction, is both ingenious 

 and conclusive in its results, and we therefore give it in his own 

 words : "In my way hither, I measured the flight of Eider Ducks 



