DECOY. 
725 
‘tbe Highlands. Accordingly, the work was resumed in July, 1780, 
and completely finished within four years after ; tbe navigation being 
opened between the British sea and Atlantic ocean on the 28th of 
July, 1790. 
The aqueduct bridge over the Kelvin, supposed to be the greatest 
of the kind in the world, consistsof four arches, and carries the canal 
over a valley sixty-three feet high, and four hundred and twenty in 
length, exhibiting a very singular effort of human ingenuity and 
labour. To supply this canal with water, was of itself a very great 
work. There is one capacious reservoir, of fifty acres, twenty-four feet 
deep, into which many rivers and springs terminate, which it is 
thought will afford a sufficient supply of water at all times. This 
whole undertaking has cost about two hundred thousand pounds. It 
is the greatest of the kind in Britain, and must prove of immense 
national utility, as it shortens the nautical distance from eight hun- 
dred to one thousand miles, and affords a safe and speedy naviga- 
tion, at all seasons, to Ireland, and the western parts of Britain, with- 
out any danger of shipwreck. 
Decoy. 
Among fowlers, this is a place made for catching wild fowl. A 
decoy is generally made where there is a large pond, surrounded with 
wood, and beyond that a marshy and uncultivated country ; if the 
piece of water is not thus surrounded, it will be attended with noise 
and other accidents, which may be expected to frighten the wild fowl 
from a quiet haunt, where they mean to sleep during the day in secu- 
rity. If these noises or disturbances are wilful, an action will lie 
against the disturber. As soon as the evening sets in, the decoy 
rises, as they term it, and the wild fowl feeds during the night. If 
the evening is still, the noise of their wings during their flight is 
heard at a very great distance, and is a pleasing though melancholy 
sound. This rising of the decoy in the evening, is in Somersetshire 
'Called radding. The decoy ducks are fed with hempseed, which 
is thrown over the skreens in small quantities, to bring them for- 
wards into the pipes or canals, and to allure the wild fowl to follow 
as the seed floats. There are several pipes, as they are called, 
which lead up a narrow ditch, that closes at last with a funnel net. 
Over these pipes, uhich grow narrower from their first entrance, is 
a continued arch of netting suspended on hoops. It is necessary to 
have a pipe or ditch for almost every wind that can blow, as upon 
this circumstance it depends which pipe the fowl will take to ; and 
the decoy-man always keeps on the leeward side of the ducks, to 
prevent bis effluvia reaching their sagacious nostrils. 
All along each pipe at certain intervals are placed skreens made of 
reeds, so situated that it is impossible the wild fowl should see the 
decoy-man before they have passed on towards the end of the pipe, 
where the purse-net is placed. The inducement of the wild fowl to 
go up one of these pipes is, because the decoy-ducks, trained to this, 
lead the way, either after hearing the whistle of the decoy-man, or 
enticed by the hempseed : the decoy-ducks will dive under water, whilst 
