350 MANUAL FOE YOTTNG SPORTSMEN. 



water-spaniels swimming constantly about the barque, to 

 flush the living and retrieve the dead. 



The presence of the spaniels will add much to the in- 

 terest and perfection of the sport; but except as to retrieving 

 the cripples, many of which will otherwise escape, I know 

 not that they will add much to the amount of the bag ; for 

 in those places, at the proper season, the name of the ducks 

 is absolutely legion, and they rise in such clouds before the 

 canoe out of the thickly set wild rice, that the worst^shot 

 can scarcely fail to fill his vessel. The first thing to be ac- 

 quired for this kind of shooting, is the ability to move and 

 shoot out of a birch canoe, without upsetting it, a thing by 

 no means easy to be done, and to be gained only by practice. 



For shooting them, no other instructions are required 

 than those already given in regard to wild fowl in gen- 

 eral — to fire quickly on the first sight, and to allow well 

 for the speed of cross shots, or rising shots, although going 

 straight from you. 



The best gun for inland duck-shooting is the kind 

 described above, and of which John Mullins, of New York, 

 is strongly recommended as a maker, of about 10 lbs. 

 weight, 10 gauge and thirty-four inch barrels, barlocks, and 

 plain case-hardened steel mountings ; such a piece will 

 throw 3 oz. of No. 2 shot, if required — but in nine cases 

 Dut of ten 4, or 3 at most, will be amply sufficient — with 

 telling force over an ample area, so as to kill surely at 

 sixty yards. In the Appendix, I annex a letter from this 

 responsible maker, containing the scale of his rates for 

 guns of different classes and calibres, which may be found 

 useful to distant readers. 



