206 WILD-FOWL 



receive good wages, and many of them are employed 

 throughout the year. 



Sportsmen sometimes propel their own boats by 

 means of a sculling-oar or pole, but few men can man- 

 age a boat and shoot well at the same time. The Cal- 

 ifornia market gunners use a light-draught skiff half 

 decked over and covered with grass, so as to resem- 

 ble closely the marsh. In this boat the gunners move 

 quietly about and shoot the ducks asleep upon the 

 mud-banks. 



Mr. Gumming says : " Long experience has taught 

 these men that speed is a useful auxiliary to science 

 in getting upon their watchful and cautious game, and 

 they find it necessary to adopt novel methods of getting 

 about, one of which is that of lying at full length upon 

 their backs in the bottom of the boat, totally concealed 

 from outside view, while working a peculiarly bent 

 oar in a greased scull-hole, that drives the blind-boat 

 ahead quietly and rapidly. The whole outfit resem- 

 bles a detached portion of the marsh floating naturally 

 down with the tide. In this manner, before the State 

 law was passed prohibiting the shooting of more than 

 fifty birds in a day, the pot-hunters would each day, 

 in season or out of season, fill their murderous ma- 

 chines to the gunwales, thereby making such a glut in 

 the markets that large quantities of fine fowl spoiled 

 before they could be sold." 



At some of the clubs blinds are constructed on the 

 open water by driving long poles or young trees into 

 the muddy bottom in such shape as to form a blind 

 which will hold a boat. This is open at one end or has 

 a brush door, to permit the entrance of the boat, and 



