312 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN". 



Wild Geese make their appearance on tlie Delaware and 

 Chesapeake Bays in October, and when many are flying early 

 in the season, it is considered a certain prognostic of a long and 

 hard Winter, a belief, in which all the inhabitants of those parts 

 that they visit place implicit confidence. 



During their journey through the Canadas, their thick ranks 

 are considerably thinned by the slaughter made among them 

 by the Indians, who kill immense numbers for their own sup- 

 port and that of the English settlements about Hudson's Bay. 



The Geese are cleaned and salted away for the winter's use, 

 and afford the principal article of flesh that the people have to 

 depend upon for several months in the year, 



Mr. Pennat says: "The English at Hudson's Bay depend 

 greatly on Geese of this and other kinds for their support, and, 

 in favorable years, kill three or four thousand, which are salted 

 and barrelled. Their arrival is impatiently expected by the 

 inhabitants, as they are one of the chief articles of their food, 

 and also the harbingers of Spring; and the month is named by 

 the Indians the Ooose-Moon. They appear usually at our settle- 

 ments in numbers about St. George's Day, and fly Northward 

 to nestle in security. They prefer islands to the Continent, 

 as further from the haunts of men. Thus, Marble Island was 

 found in August to swarm with Swans, Geese, and Ducks; the 

 old ones moulting, and the young unfledged and incapable of 

 flying. The English send out their servants as well as the 

 Indians to shoot these Birds on their passage. It is in vain to 

 pursue them; they, therefore, form a row of huts made of 

 boughs, at musket-shot distance from each other, and place 

 them in a line across the parts of the vast marshes of the coun- 

 try where the Geese are expected to pass. Each stand is occu- 

 pied by a single person; these, on the approach of the Birds, 

 mimic their cackle so well that the Geese will answer, wheel, 

 and come nearer the hovel. The Sportsman keeps motionless 

 and on his knees, with his gun cocked, and never fires till he 

 has seen the eyes *of the Geese. He fires as they are going 

 from him, then picks up another gun that lies by him and dis- 

 charges that. The Geese killed he sets up on sticks as if alive, 

 to Decoy others; he also makes artificial Birds for the same 

 purpose. In a good day (for they fly in very uncertain and 



