350 MANUAL FOR YOUNG 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 asto 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 
out of ten 4, or 8 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. 
