BOATS. 307 



What kind of a boat a person requires depends en- 

 tirely on where he expects to use it. When he has 

 fully made up his mind to have a boat, he should as 

 fully and knowingly decide what style of boat he wants. 

 Remember this, that there is a great similarity in 

 duck-shooting on all Western waters, whether in tim- 

 ber, river, lake or marsh, and a boat that will do in one 

 place will do in almost every other. This being the 

 case the hunter should buy or build one that will an- 

 swer for all places. Do not expect to combine great 

 speed, sea-going qualities, lightness of draught and 

 weight, all in one hunting-boat, or you will be disap- 

 pointed. These combined, make too many virtues for 

 one frail craft to carry. The one great desideratum in 

 a duck-boat, the thing to which every other is as 

 naught, is safety above all things else. Bear this in 

 mind when you select the boat, so that when you are 

 possessed of one, your imagination cannot depict to 

 you circumstances and times when you will fear dan- 

 ger by upsetting or swamping. Your life is dependent 

 on the staunchness and build of your boat. I won't say 

 skiff, for a skiff isn't a hunting boat. It is all right for 

 what it is intended, but was never intended to hunt 

 with, except as a dray for luggage. When you have 

 fully made up your mind on a boat, consider that in 

 duck-shooting the boat must be used in lakes and riv- 

 ers, in ponds and marshes, in swift-flowing streams, 

 streams surging and seething from recent rains and 

 melted snows ; that unaided by human power, the boat 

 carried along at five, six, and even eight miles an hoiir, 

 when coming suddenly a'round some willow point, is 

 driven by the torrent of waters entirely beyond your 

 control, it shoots ahead and becomes entangled in sticks 



