614 



^ June 15, layb. 



"(^r,me Laws in Brief.'' June, 1S9S, revised. &avt'i and Fish laws 

 of all the. Sialr:'. IWrlinvi.-R and Provinces. Curi'ect, reliaUe, hand- 

 wtiiely iUustro.terl. F"OUslw<l by Urn '-Forest and Stream.'' Sold by 

 all dealers. Price SO cents 



DUCKING ON THE MUDDY MISSISSIPPI. 



The duck season in this latitude is practically over in 

 March. A few are foimd here even as late as April 

 mainly the dusky duck and blue-winged teal. Tlie lattei 

 is not with us durmg winter, but early m the fall— about 

 October-passes here on its way further south and m 

 April passes again on its way to the far North. The last 

 season we had very good sport. Ducks were fairly plenti- 

 ful and we bagged enough to satisfy us. 



Chi-istmas we^ek being a holiday for the boys, we made 

 a special trip for them, and they indeed had a grand time. 

 Austin Warner is only 15 years old, but he had a hght 

 single-barrel 12-gauge with Avhich he tumbled over a 

 number of ducks fully in proportion to his size. My son 

 Paul is two years older, and takes as naturally to a gun as 

 a duck to water. He claims a score of sixteen without 

 aid, and has grown, in imagination, several inches since 



*^^Bu"^hat is not the outing that I wish to write about. 

 In January we made another trip, and while we did not 

 get so much gaiue as on the Christmas hunt, we had an 

 unique time. On this trip we had a couple of guests, and 

 we strained the Rambler a Uttle to afford the necessary 

 accommodations. Marx Loewenberg was one of them. 

 He is an all-round sportsman, his specialty being an ang- 

 ler, probably the best here, and takes to duck shooting 

 tolerably well, though sometimes he fails at the critical 

 moment to come right up to the scratch. Mr. Mack Law- 

 rence is a brother-in-law of Mr. Warner, and along with 

 Marx was a welcome guest, though he is possessed of no 

 ducking proclivities to speak of. I speak of this advisedly, 

 after having been Avith him on this trip. Nevertheless, he 

 is endowed with talents of a high order in certain lines, 

 and was by no means a source of burden to us, whatever 

 he might have been to himself. His business is railroad- 

 ing, and having been upon the water very little, he had 

 some experiences on this trip that took him amidships 

 and upset his equiUbrium on more than one occasion. 



We left Vicksburg early one morning in January with 

 provisions and fuel for a four days' trip. We had a rap- 

 idly declining river and that was a decidedly unfavorable 

 feature, as the ducks had no fresh feeding territory, and 

 the receding water left a lobloUy of mud for the shooters 

 to operate on in building bUnds and shooting from them. 

 This rendered the land work vastly and extremely tire- 

 some and disagreeable. 



We went down the river, and our stop for first shoot 

 was made on the bar in front of Big Black Island. The 

 weather was dark and cliilly and so far favorable. At the 

 upper end of the Willow Bar we cast anchor, when Mr. 

 Warner and I took the canoe, Amateur, and paddled 

 down the bar on a prospecting tour. Not many ducks 

 were seen until we reached the lower end. There a grand 

 sight met our view, as an immense number of green- 

 winged teal rose and flew away from the switch willows. 

 There must have been fully 5,000 in that one flock, and 

 the air roared with the noise made by the beating wings 

 as they flew away. The prospecting being satisfactory, 

 we determined to locate and take the evening and morn- 

 ing shoot at this place. W. and Mack L. located at the 

 lower end while Marx L. and I took a position about mid- 

 way between them and the launch. 



Owing to the stage of the water and the boggy condi- 

 tion of the bar Marx and I had great difficulty in con- 

 structing a blind. We had to boat willows a quarter of a 

 mile for the purpose, and when built the blind was so 

 much higher than the surrounding switch willows that it 

 was mainly a scare-crow^ and far more calculated to 

 frighten ducks away than was our bewitching spread of 

 decoys to entice them to us. Nevertheless we bagged a 

 few ducks at this bhnd. 



Down at the other blind better luck was had for build- 

 ing it, large willows being close at hand, and for securing 

 game. The blind was not nearly so conspicuous, the 

 flight there was better, and Marx and I were decidedly 

 outscored, though none of us did as well as we had ex- 

 pected, after seeing the immense flock that had been 

 using there. After a little shooting, the game appeared 

 to leave for other parts mainly. 



Next morning at daybreak we went back to the blinds, 

 but what a mess did we find ! The water had receded 

 nearly a foot. Most of the decoys, winch the evening 

 before had been resting gracefully on the water, were 

 now in a loblolly of mud. Especially was this the case 

 at the lower bhnd, which had to be moved altogether. 

 This required very irksome labor, for the ground was 

 boggy, and as the decoys were beyond reach of the boat, 

 we. had to corduroy out to get them. Mr. W, is light, 

 agile and a great worker. He is the most faithful and 

 plucky duck hunter 1 have ever met. He got every last 

 one of those decoys, but he came near lasing a prominent 

 railroader in the operation. Mack was assisting him in a 

 limited way, and being of a stout build and not so active 

 as a double somersaulter, at a certain juncture he got 

 a shade out of equiUIiriuin, went olf of the temporary 

 corduroy and landed full length in the slush, except about 

 a quarter section of him, which struck one side of the re- 

 trieving boat. This quarter section was the only redeem- 

 ing feature of the performance. Otherwise one ]\tack L. 

 would have been buried in the mud past all comfort and 

 far beyond recog-nitiou. 



During the morning we got a few teal, though not as 

 many as we had J i oped for. About noon we took up the 

 decoys, paddled to the Rambler, raised steam and went 

 fiu-ther dowTi the river to another bar of switch willows. 

 We found quite a nimiber of teal here, but the territory 

 they were rising on Avas altogether vmfavorable to a suc- 

 cessful shoot. Tliere was no natural cover for the shooter 

 and a vast ai'ea of soft mud. W. and Mack L. again 

 went below the switch willows for location, while Mai-x 

 L. and I again went into the switch willows and slush, 

 and made our blind around the cockpit of the Amateur, 

 leaving the dt'cl;ed ends to project on the outside. While 

 we were constructing tlio blinds, a cold rain setiii which 

 uecessitated a resort to rubber coats. The wind blew 

 very chilly out of the nortliwost, but it was propitious 

 Juok weather, such as delights the soul of the vcteraa, 



for he knows full well that such condition is favorable 

 to a good flight and successful shoot. And the flight 

 proved not altogether bad, though we had hoped for 

 something better. One l;lind was too promment and the 

 other somewhat out of position. An hour after getting 

 into them the cold rain turned to snow. At first this 

 melted freely, but later remained where it fell and very 

 soon clothed aU surrounding objects in pure white, io 

 us Southerners who see so httle snow it was a grand 

 sight to behold, and it was worth all the labor of the trip 

 to witness it. However, we did not neglect the ducks 

 that chanced to decoy between times, and for a while we 

 bagged a snug little pile of them. But it was not long 

 before the decoys ceased to melt the rapidly descending 

 snow, when each individual one looked more like a ghost 

 of a decoy tlian a real live duck. After that the birds 

 gave oar layout a wide range and we got but few. 



When it grew nearly dark all four of us pulled away 

 for the launch, whi(3h had been anchored about a ijiuarter 

 of a mile up the wind. In this paddle, short as it was, 

 we got a genuine taste of old Boreas. We had already 

 been chiUed to the bone in the blinds, and as our clothing 

 was damp and our hands wet the wind penetrated to the 

 very marrow. 



Mack was the funny man of the party, and generally 

 managed to keep us in good humor, though sometimes 

 we got enjoyment out of him in a way that he had not 

 intended. The river and all pertaining to it was a nov- 

 elty and sometunes a perplexity to him. In getting 

 aboard the Rambler he generaUy came in head foremost 

 on all fours, and looked more like a cow plunging into a 

 pen than a civihzed individual getting into a boat. But 

 on this occasion he was benumbed with cold, and when 

 the Boss boat was paddled alongside and tlie curtain 

 raised, he took a tilt toward the interior of the Rambler, 

 got the bulk of himself on the inside of the coaming, and 

 literally fell in. We had our laugh. '-Gentlemen," said 

 he, after having gotten on his pins, "I'm frozen. This 

 boat is the very last inch I could have gone alive. If 

 Jay Gould's residence was only 200yds. further up this 

 arctic blizzard, and I had a free run of the establishment, 

 nothing on earth would induce mc to try to go there. 

 As it is I may recover, but absolutely I have reached a 

 point where a man ceases to live and begins to die." 



Not long after getting aboard the launch we were com- 

 fortable enough. Mack included. A fire had been left in 

 the furnace, and by the addition of a few shovels of coal 

 a steam pressure of about oOlbs. was raised, and as the 

 curtains were kept securely fastened, we proceeded to 

 enjoy ourselves in spite of the conflicting elements on the 

 outside. We had a substantial supper which included 

 four broiled teal; passed around a few jokes and went to 

 bed. Tliis bed is composed mainly of a mattress Sin. thick, 

 by 6ift. square. It accommodated four of us snugly. 

 The two guests were placed in the middle where they 

 could be kept warm, though they protested against so 

 much consideration for their welfare. Toward morning 

 when the boiler had cooled somewhat, W. and I crowded 

 a httle and kept the two L.'s from becoming chilly. It is 

 a habit of ours to look after the comfort of our guests. 



Another thing about the Rambler's guests— they are re- 

 quired to conform to civil service rules. If only one is 

 along, he is made fireman and deck hand. He sometimes 

 kicks agamst this rule, but to no purpose. It goes along 

 with sleeping in the middle. He has to shovel in dirty 

 coal, keep the grate bars well scraped, clean out the ashes 

 and cinders, leap ashore in the rain and mud to make fast 

 a Une, take up the dripping anchor, and perform sundry 

 other work. On this tnp i\Iarx got some aid from Mack, 

 and liad f e satisfaction of being one grade higher than 

 him. It being Mack's first trip he had the principal 

 drudgery to do, but I thinli Marx rather hectored over 

 him. Mack had the muddy line to handle, the coal to 

 take from the bunkers, break up and proAdde convenient 

 for firing. He spurted around and fretted considerably 

 and would occasionally appeal to the liilot or engineer for 

 relief from the fireman's demands on himself, but he was 

 speedily given to understand that he was a "decker," and 

 must serve his superior, the fireman, as well as others in 

 authority over him. His w^ork made him black, dirty 

 and tired, but he liad to knuckle to the rule. After a bit 

 he worked well in harness, and on the way home was 

 promoted, for a brief time, to the position of assistant 

 engineer. This pleased him very much. He was allowed 

 occasionally to o])en and close the throttle in order that 

 the pilot and engineer or his immediate superior, the fire- 

 man, might operate on sundry wild geese which were 

 numerous on the sand bars. Over this little distinction 

 he swelled and strutted about the boat considerably and 

 got so peacocky that he had to be reduced back to coal 

 cracker, to keep him from taking charge of the boat en- 

 tirely. 



As a duck shooter Mack did not develop rapidly. W. 

 was very patient with him, would give him easy shots, 

 wait for him to shoot and persuade him that he had kdled 

 his full share. Sometimes, when the flight was dull. 

 Mack would lose attention and had to be prompted, when 

 suddenly the birds had decoyed. 



"Marx, I want to tell you a good one on myself," he 

 said one day softly in Marx's ear, "but you must not re- 

 peat it to a soul," he went om "I would not have W. or 

 P. know it for the Avorld. Why if P., that scribbler, got 

 hold of it he would sow it to the four winds. You keep 

 it, do ye hear? On one occasion I got a little drowsy and 

 failed "to keep a close watch out for ducks. Do you know 

 I get tired of this thing and think it's all a grand humbug, 

 this going out in such bad weather in the cold and rain 

 and mud and sometimes snow, to kill a few trifling ducks 

 that I could buy in Vicksburg for a very small per cent, of 

 the cost of the game we get on one of these trips, to say 

 nothing of the absolute suffering we undergo. Those two 

 men are regular cranks. Of course I've got to make g, 

 pretense of enjoymg it to keep tilings smooth. I just 

 can't stand the racket." 



"I think myself," said Marx, "that sometimes this is 

 more exposure and fatigue than sport." 



"Yes," resumed Mack, "and I am losing interest very 

 fast. Why, on one occasion — and don't you tell it — W. 

 suddenly asked me if I Avas ready. I had just heard 

 something sijlash on the Avater, but did not know a large 

 flock of ducks had decoyed until spoken to. I had been 

 thinking how comfortable it would be at home before a 

 roaring fire during such weather instead of being frozen 

 nearly stiff, with a cold loblolly of mud libK'rally smeared 

 all over me. But I aroused, assumed a position as quick 

 as I could, and you know that is not very quick, said 'yes,' 

 I and fired. And what do you reckon I did? Why, I just 



poured both loads into the decoys. I made a fearful com- 

 motion among them. I never shot within ten yards of a 

 duck, and did not get the location of them until they 

 were'flying away. The decoys deceived me. But three 

 dead ducks lav spread out on the water, and Avould you 

 believe it, W. gave me the credit for having killed two of 

 them, and I didn't deny it. By Jove, W. is the most un- 

 selfish man I ever saw in giving me the credit for kilhng 

 ducks. I have managed to fill the air pretty full of lead, 

 but as to ducks, I haven't killed a thousand, by a jug full." 



But Mack's little secret leaked out. Probably when he 

 told it the engineer Avas close by and got the gist of it. 

 So, sure enough, here it is scribbled into print. 



The next day, after the snoAv, about noon, Ave took up 

 the decoA^s and steamed back up to Big Black Island. The 

 snow had melted. On the way up a brisk cold rain set in. 

 It Avas by no means agreeable except to a genuine lover of 

 Avildfowl shooting. To such it was par excellence. 



It Avas not long after getting under way before Mack 

 began to complain of feehng unAvell. At first no atten- 

 tion was paid to his remarks. But soon he became more 

 prolific and specific in his complaints. About that time I 

 got a smfle askance from W. which was sufficiently sig- 

 nificant to be understood. Mack's bones ached; he was 

 stilf ; he felt like one Avho Avas taking the grippe; he was 

 prostrated generally. 



When we anchored the Rambler off the middle of the 

 Big Black Island bar, which location this time was pre- 

 ferred to our former position at the head of the bar, it was 

 still raining. It was about this time that Marx began to 

 develop a disease. He had the cramp or rheumatism in one 

 foot; this ra,pidly grew more acute. By the time W. and 

 I Avere ready to go out both invalids were altogether out 

 of condition for a duck shoot. Mack was drawn up into 

 a shape indicative of much suffering, Avhile his counte- 

 nance, usually beaming Avdth a look of good humor, now 

 wore an expression fully equal to the requirements of the 

 occasion; and Marx played a fine second to Mack's lead as 

 he hmped about tlie launch in excruciating pain. 



Of course W. and I were not going to insist on our 

 guests going out and exposing themselves to severe 

 weather under such conditions, though I must confess we 

 were not apprehensiA^e of serious results ensuing from the 

 physical ailments of our complaining friends. 



Soon W. and I were in the little boats, having left the 

 M. L.'s by the warm boiler in the Rambler, out of the 

 rain and protected by the closed curtains from the Avind. 



We two old "cranks," as Mack would call us, paddled 

 off to take a few shots at the gamy teal. W. went to his 

 former blind at the foot of the bar, a decidedly good 

 position both for flight and an obscure blmd, while I pad- 

 dled off to a cove at the upper end, where I had a blind 

 to build as before in the switch willows. As had been 

 done down river, I surrounded the cockpit with a com- 

 bination of willows and old sacks, ripped up for the pur- 

 pose. I had no more than commenced Avork, Avhen W. 

 opened up down at his stand in a manner sufficiently en- 

 ergetic to indicate that he had business to attend to and 

 was doing it promptly. I continued Avork on the blind, 

 while W. continued to shoot. This, together with the 

 sight of an occasional flock of ducks that passed my way, 

 enlivened me to brace up under the depressing effects of 

 the rain. Soon all was ready, when I crawled into a 

 snug httle nest. Quite soon a single teal decoyed at long 

 range. It strained the old gun to get him, but he was 

 taken out of the Avet and stowed aAvay under the deck of 

 the Amateur. Ten minutes or so later three more teal 

 decoyed, rather beyond range, A considerable time was 

 giA-en f or them to do some sAvimming toward the blind, 

 but they shoAved suspicion, and did not swim nearer ac- 

 cording to my wish. To the contrary, they started aAvay, 

 when quickly a couple of shots were sent after them, 

 Avhich did nothing more than accelerate their exit. In 

 the meantime the reports from down the river Avere ani- 

 mated and frequent, in fact so much so that I got very 

 restless and dissatisfied with my location, concluded W. 

 had need of help, yanked my boat unceremoniously 

 through the little blind, jumped into it and paddled off 

 vigorously to join in the sport below, leaving the blind 

 and decoys to manipulate the deserted stand as circum- 

 stances might dictate. It Avas about three-quarters of a 

 mile paddle, but it did not take long with W.'s gun as an 

 assistant motive power. On the way a touch was made 

 at the Rambler to see hoAV the tAvin invalids Avere faring. 

 From here W.'s stand was in full vievp. When the nose 

 of the canoe was pushed alongside, the canoeist beheld 

 one corner of the Rambler's curtain drawn aside while 

 the two L 's watched the progress of the contest below. 



"I wish some one would kick me," said Mack. "1 

 might just as AA^ell have been down there as not. W. is 

 getting a grand shoot. Just see the ducks go in there!" 



"And he is kilhng them, too," added Marx. "I expect 

 Ave have missed it this time. Who could have known 

 such a flight was going to be had! But that rain, I don't 

 hke it." ^ 

 "Nor I, and the mud. Crackey!" 



"What has become of P.? He don't seem to be getting 

 in his work. I haven't heard him shoot but three times." 



Pushing the Amateur into view, I said: "Well, you 

 can just put it down in your little book that P. isn't get- 

 ting in his work just now, but soon Avill. Say, boys, are 

 you much sick? "Hadn't you better go to bed?" 



"Oh, yes: Ave are sick now, sure enough," said Mack. 



When I got to W. he had kiUed and retrieved twenty- 

 seven ducks, Avhich had been done in about one hour's 

 time. I went into the blind with him and we two en- 

 thusiasts sat there and killed fifteen more in short order, 

 when, from some cause, the flight stopped short off' with- 

 out any apparent reason. Not another duck came in that 

 evening, though we sat there nearly two hours, and until 

 dark, waiting for them. On going to the launch the 

 twins called me a Jonah, saying I had stopped the flight. 



That night, with the patients again between us in 

 bed, W. and I gave them an entertainment in the 

 way of relating anecdotes, adventures, etc. We be- 

 came quite conversational and spread ourselves, as 

 it were, in an eft'ort to entertain the two feeble gentle- 

 men, one Avith aching bones and the other Avith a 

 rheumatic foot, Avho lay innocently and unsuspiciously 

 between us. Generally on a trip we devote one evening 

 to an entertainment (?) of this kind. Marx had been Avith 

 us on previous trips, but so far had not been initiated. 

 Mack, who, as a rule, is very quick in conception, failed 

 promptly to "catch on" as the slang phrase goes. He did 

 not appear to be whoUy satisfied Avith the talks and 

 wanted to sleep, especially as the novelty of the situation 

 had prevented htm from sleeping soundly the previous 



