WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 341 
land-locked sheets of water or lagoons, lying along the 
greater part of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, 
from Florida so far north as to the eastern extremity of 
Long Island, between an outer beach or sea-bank of sand 
or shingle, thrown up by the action of the surf and under- 
tow, and the main land, is for the most part of one char- 
acter. 
It is prosecuted either from boats, concealed in nooks 
cut out of the sedgy points or islands of sedge and hassock, 
with which these waters abound, and partially covered 
with reeds, sea-weed, salt meadow hay, and other trash ; 
or from what are technically called batteries, narrow, 
shallow, coffin-like boxes of wood, just large enough to 
contain one person lying flat on his back, provided with a 
margin of boards nearly horizontal, but slightly inclined 
upward at the outer edge like the brim of a soup-plate, 
which, resting on the surface of the water, support the box 
