THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 29 



some willow bushes. Hugh was to do the shooting. He took his 12- 

 gauge Winchester, stood up so as to do more effective shooting, and 

 blazed away as the ducks started up the river. Only one duck fell, 

 which dove and was never seen again. The shooting was simply 

 wretched, as the shot hit behind. I told Hugh what I thought of such 

 shooting. 



We soon came within sight of the Brown bridge. Here we had 

 about a mile of stiff water, with some bad rapids at the end of it. We 

 landed and took a look at the rapids and decided to run them. We 

 got through without any trouble. A quarter of a mile below, without 

 bothering to examine it, we took another rapid. We went over all 

 right, but it was worse than we expected. As the river was low, quite a 

 bit of water came over the boat, making it necessary to stop and bail 

 out. 



We now came to the forks of the river, where the South Umpqua 

 joins the North. Here we had about three miles of still water and I 

 killed a couple of ducks. We came to some shallow rapids, where the 

 river is wide and very shallow during low water. We had to do a great 

 deal of dodging and twisting to get through, as there were only certain 

 channels deep enough to float a boat. We next came to the Crow rapids. 

 I never liked these rapids, as they are almost a sheer fall at low water 

 and very rough. The waves roll so high that a person cannot handle 

 the oars to any advantage while going through. One just has to start 

 the boat straight, "let 'er go, " and trust to luck. 



For a long way down wo had good going. We traveled quietly 

 along, flushing ducks and firing at them whenever they came within 

 range. We killed a large number, but we also missed several, as they 

 are hard to hit from a moving and rocking boat in swift water. 



We saw we were not making very good time. It was getting late 

 in the afternoon and we realized it would be impossible for us to reach 

 the mouth of Little Canyon, where we had left our beds and provisions. 

 So it was up to us to sleep out without any bedding the first night, but 

 that didn't worry us to any extent. 



A the mouth of Bottle Creek the w x ater wasi so shallow our boat 

 stuck in the gravel and we had a hard time getting through. We 

 arrived at Ed. Hosier's place about 5 P. M. Hugh's boat was here, so 

 from this on we each had a boat. Just after passing the mouth of 

 Cougar Creek we had some good shooting. Large numbers of ducks 

 and shags flew up the river past us and we made it warm for them, 

 both turning loose on them with our shotguns, and fish ducks and 

 shags were falling all around us. 



We traveled an hour after dark, but this soon became too risky a 

 business, especially running the rapids, so we tied up our boats. We 

 found a suitable place, built a fire and prepared to spend the night. I 

 counted our game and found we had killed 27 fish ducks, 2 bluebills, 

 3 shags, one pheasant, and 3 ruffed grouse. We sat up till late cooking 

 bluebill and ruffed grouse on sticks over the fire. The night seemed 

 long; it was cold; and we had no blankets. We lay by the fire, one 

 side roasting while the other froze. I looked at my watch many a time 

 that night. We got our boats and started almost before we could see 

 to travel, for the dangers of the river seemed preferable to the discom- 

 fort of camp. 



It was cold and foggy that morning. A person could see only a 

 short distance ahead. It was a dandy morning for duck shooting, as 

 they could not see us very far. My first chance was at a large bunch 

 of hooded mergansters, small fish ducks we call them. They came out 

 of the fog and up the river past me like a streak of lightning. They 



