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LAYOUT OF A BATTERY AND DECOYS 



shells in the machine, the gunner re- 

 turns to the sloop, weighs anchor, and 

 makes short sail ; weather conditions 

 determine just about how far he shall 

 leave the battery. Should an attending 

 sloop in her anxiety to stir up the birds, 

 get away so far as to be of no use in a 

 case of emergency, the following tac- 

 tics should be adopted by the men in 

 the box. 



Say it suddenly blows up and the sea 

 runs high. The first thing you would 

 do would be to raise the lead strip be- 

 fore mentioned. This being inade- 

 quate to prevent the inroad of the 

 water a line should be made fast to as 

 many of your iron stools (which are 

 on deck of the box) as possible, and the 



same thrown over the tail end. This 

 will lighten your craft some and you 

 will float higher and manage to keep 

 out of the water till the sloop arrives, 

 which she will surely do, as those in 

 charge understand your condition. 



One day I had a couple of good 

 boys rigged all serene ; weather steady 

 and no cause for worry about the bat- 

 tery. So I sailed away after a raft of 

 birds two miles off. We succeeded in 

 getting them up, and had the pleasure 

 of seeing them fly in twos and tens to 

 where we knew our outfit lay. Then 

 we beat back. Judge of my annoyance 

 on getting close to the boys to see 

 them (as I thought) setting vis a vis 

 on the deck of the box. I signaled to 



MAGGIE SUTHERLAND AS A FISHWIFE 

 6 



