52 EQUIPMENT. 



during the severest weather by the warmth of 

 their bodies, and by keeping the water con- 

 stantly in motion. It is not unusual at such 

 times to kill over a hundred during the day. 

 One of the best blinds for this kind of sport is 

 made of ice. It should be cut in cakes, the size 

 of which should be proportioned to its thickness, 

 and these should be placed on edge or end in the 

 proper form. If the ice is thin, say three or four 

 inches thick, and the day cold, shallow grooves 

 should be cut in the bed-ice, and the ends of the 

 cakes placed therein. Water should then be poured 

 about them, and the fine ice made in chopping 

 packed in beside them, which will quickly cement 

 together, holding the cakes firm and upright. Old 

 ice or ice mixed with snow is the best, as new 

 ice, if thin, is generally too transparent; but, if 

 white cotton cloth be hung inside the new ice, 

 it makes the blind all that could be desired. 



Another and perhaps the very best blind that 

 can be made for air-hole shooting is the sunken 

 box, not the battery described under the head 

 of canvas-back shooting, but a deep box of pine, 

 almost forty inches square on top and fifteen 

 inches on the bottom. On account of the diffi- 

 culty of sinking it, it should be as small as 



