342 MANUAL FOB YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



itself, so that it cannot absolutely sink, but is submerged 

 by the weight of the concealed shooter until its edges are 

 level with the sea on which it rests. The flat boards or 

 margins above described, are covered with sand, pebbles, 

 small shells, and sea-weeds, so that it resembles a little 

 shoal peering above the water, or a lot of floating wrack 

 and trash, and is not suspected by the fowl. 



This treacherous contrivance is moored exactly on the 

 flats where the fowl feed, the gunner is conveyed to it in a 

 boat by a partner, who, as soon as he is perfectly ensconced 

 and invisible, with his heavy guns and ammunition, and 

 provided with his fleet of decoys of all kinds and sizes, 

 exactly representing all the varieties of fowl which he may 

 expect, riding at anchor around him, within half gunshot, 

 rows off to a distance, and plies busily about the bays, 

 disturbing all the flocks he can discover on the feed, in 

 the hope that, as they fly over, they may descry the decoys 

 and fly to them. 



When the roar of his confederate's gun informs him 

 that execution has been done, he rows to the spot, gathers 

 up the cripples, and withdraws again as before to beat up 

 the neighboring flats and shallows for fresh teams of 

 victims. 



The slaughter committed from these batteries is often 

 prodigious ; but so irksome, if not actually painful is the 

 cramped position in which the sportsman is compelled to 

 lie, that, to my thinking, it scarcely can be called sport. 



Unsportsmanlike, in one sense, it certainly is to the 

 last degree, that it harasses the birds to such an extent, by 

 the very fact that they are slain unseen and unsuspecting 



