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them and comes South from the middle 
of October till the middle of November. 
In the vast territories presided over by 
the Hudson’s Bay Company, the goose— 
and. not the song bird or the swallow— 
is the real harbinger of spring. And he 
is there welcome for other and less senti- 
mental reasons. In many parts of the 
Company’s territories, one Canada goose 
was served out as “‘an equivalent for one 
day’s rations,’”? and was reckoned at “the 
same ration as two snow or arctic geese 
would be; or three ducks, or eight pounds 
of moose meat, or two pounds of pemmican 
and a pint of maize and four pounds of 
suet.”” Now, as a full-grown specimen of 
A. canadensis in good condition weighs 
nine or more pounds, those who haven’t 
seen the Indian or halfbreed of the North- 
east or Northwest eat on festive occasions 
would consider this an ample ration. But 
it isn’t. It’s just about right, no more. 
The brown man of the North has con- 
tracted the habit of eating largely when he 
gets the chance, on account of being 
sometimes constrained by circumstances 
over which he has no control to go for 
two or three days between meals. 
One best appreciates the wild goose’s 
peculiar, resonant cry, which has in it the 
true spirit of the mighty, untamed wilder- 
ness, which is his home, when one hears it 
north of ‘“‘fifty-three.” There are three 
sounds that preéminently have this spirit 
of the wilderness in them: the weird 
laugh of the loon as it rings out of the 
morning mists of some lonely, unnamed 
lake; the night-howl of the great timber 
wolf, and the clangorous cry of the wild 
goose, aS he wings his way over the deso- 
late muskeg, tundra and swamp of the 
vast Northland wilderness. 
Geese can be approached even in civil- 
ized regions, but the task, which is a good 
deal harder than stalking a deer in the 
open, is one I would hardly advise the 
sportsman to attempt except by way of a 
strenuous gymnastic exercise which, like 
virtue, ‘‘is its own reward.”’ It is far better, 
as I have already said, to lie in wait for 
them in some place of concealment on or 
near their favorite feeding grounds. To 
be prepared to do this with some facility, 
it is a good plan to place heaps of pea 
RECREATION 
haulm, or straw, or even brush, for “ hides”’ 
on favorable spots about these grounds. 
These must be placed in position before 
the geese arrive for the season or begin 
to feed on these spots. If they are placed 
after, the wary fowl will at once recognize 
something new and thenceforth give the 
dangerous place wide berth. 
The sportsman, can, however, take ad- 
vantage of this reprehensibly suspicious 
temperament of his game, and turn the 
tables on him in one way. Suppose—as 
often happens—a flock of wild geese have 
several good feeding grounds near together. 
The sportsman can, of course, only watch 
one, being unable, unlike Sir Boyle Roeche’s 
bird, to be “‘in two places at once.” Let 
him place on some conspicuous knoll or 
rising ground on the wheat or rye stubbles, 
which he does not find it convenient to 
watch, a bunch of old newspapers, with 
a large stone on them to keep them from 
blowing away before the wind. The flutter 
of these novel objects will effectually 
prevent the too clever fowl from alighting 
on the grounds so ‘“‘papered,” and they 
will accordingly repair to the particular 
field which presents no such suspicious 
appearance, and where the sportsman will 
probably be waiting for them. 
You can also sometimes approach these 
wise fowl in a well-handled canoe on the 
great shallow marshes they often frequent, 
where you can cautiously push your craft 
_through the tall rushes and marsh grass, 
and through devious channels where “‘the 
sword grass, and the spear grass, and the 
bulrush in the pool,” form a shelter, and 
finally have the pleasure of drawing a bead 
on the heads and necks of several and of 
giving them the second barrel as they rise 
with a pandemonium of startled cackling. 
Then when the alarmed “‘honking”’ of the 
survivors is dying away in the distance, 
you must proceed to pick the crippled up 
with what speed you may, for if one of them 
gains the shelter of the tall reeds, you are 
not likely to see him again unless you have 
a strong retriever with you. 
You can also lie in wait behind decoys 
on land or in water, or out on the ice, as 
they do in the Maritime Provinces of 
Canada, covered with canvas to make you 
appear like a lump of snow. During this 
