With Powder Flask and Shot Pouch. 
Concluded from page 256. 
On my return to my plantation home, I wrote 
to George Mackay in Boston, giving an account 
of Combahee shooting and invited him to visit 
me for another trip to the fields. Of course he 
came. Then I wrote another Boston boy, Doug¬ 
las Frazer, at Hilton Head, and he joined us. 
As soon as our preparations were completed we 
started early in the morning from Beaufort, 
arriving at the Lowndes place before sunset. 
The two officers there, Lieuts. Craig and 
Loomis, not knowing we were coming, were not 
stocked up with provisions, and all they could 
give us for supper—our dinner, too—was a small 
bit of bacon and hoecake. 
The next day we went to the fields up the 
river to make a number of blinds. When we 
were approaching the first place I told the boys 
to keep quiet and noiselessly grounded the nose 
of the float on the dyke. Cautiously George 
reconnoitered and reported a flock of teal 
within range. I told him not to mind us, but 
to shoot, which he did and we picked up six¬ 
teen. I must apologize for this pot shot, but 
it was the only one made during our stay of 
three weeks. Our excuse was the bacon and hoe- 
cake of the night before. 
The next day, Jan. 29, 1866, we were all at 
one field in three blinds. In writing up the 
record of the day, George says in part: 
“The fowl of all descriptions came very fast, 
mostly in large flocks, flying for the most part 
very high, so we succeeded in getting but few 
to our decoys. The immense quantity of fowl 
here is truly astonishing, and it would pay any 
man who handles a gun to come a long way 
to see what I saw—this my first day on the 
Combahee River. But there was one point I 
must mention on which we all fully agreed, and 
that was it was no use tr3dng to kill fowl out 
of shot.” 
Douglas Frazer was with us but four days. 
This left George and me to take care of the 
business. In all we were there nearly three 
weeks, there being ten shooting days in the lot. 
We went on an exploring expedition and found 
two more good shooting fields further up the 
river, one about four and the other five miles 
from our starting point. This last was the 
Walter Blake place. 
The 15th of February was our last day. Soon 
after midnight I awoke and heard a hard nor’- 
wester tearing through the trees. At half-past 
one I dressed and got breakfast, and at 3 o’clock 
we left the house. After three hours’ rowing 
against the tide and in the teeth of the gale, tak¬ 
ing turns at the oars, we arrived at Blake’s, 
hauled the float over the dyke, and soon were 
ready for ducks. The decoys were placed in a 
land or rather grass-locked pond. Side by side, 
with two guns apiece, we sat cross-legged on 
the bottom of the float, with long reedy grass 
piled up behind us, making a shelter from the 
piercing wind. The shooting was mostly at 
single birds or pairs, as a flock would separate 
when approaching the decoys. Then the speed 
with which they would “climb upstairs,” as 
George expressed it, was marvelous. We stop¬ 
ped shooting at 4 o’clock and reached home at 
nine. 
In all that I have written I have given but 
few figures, but I think now I will venture. 
The last day we took from the Blake field 
to the Lowndes house 132 ducks. 
In our ten shooting days we got (a matter of 
record) : 191 baldpates, 100 green wing teal, 68 
shovellers, 54 pintails, 26 mallards, 22 bluebills, 
9 ringneck ducks, 8 hooded mergansers, 6 ruddy 
ducks. 4 black ducks, 3 gadwalls, 3 buffleheads, 2 
white-fronted laughing geese, i whistler golden¬ 
eye and 3 cormorants; total—500. 
Some of those who have read this will say, as 
others have said before, “They must have been 
thick.” Duck gunners, however, know that some¬ 
thing more is needed than a quantity of fowl. 
Next comes the proper question, “What did 
you do with so many?” In the first place we 
breakfasted, lunched and dined on ducks the 
whole time; secondly, we sent seventy to our 
friends in town by Douglas Frazer; thirdly, we 
left forty with the officers to keep them along; 
and fourthly, we took 120 to my house near 
Beaufort for ourselves and friends. 
I have often been asked, “Did you not get 
tired of them?” Not at all. I can truthfully 
say that I never enjoyed such eating in my life. 
Those rice-fed ducks were the best ever, and 
the baldpates led them all. 
In the Lowndes house were several large open 
fireplaces for burning logs, and in one of them 
the fire was never allowed to go out. This meant 
an ever present bank of hardwood live coals, 
making the best possible heat for roasting ducks 
if one only had a tin kitchen. Not having one, 
however, I used a wooden crackerbox instead, 
bored a hole at each end and spitted the birds 
on an iron ramrod—three at a time. About 
twenty minutes was the time required to cook 
them right, and while we were eating these, three 
more were put on the spit for our second 
course. Six were not too many for four boys, 
as our appetites were not feeble. 
This was our last visit to the Combahee, for 
in March following we migrated to Boston and 
I was never again at the plantation in winter. 
What is it that makes a duck shooter so will¬ 
ing and eager to do such hard work, to get out 
of bed hours before daylight, to stand such ex¬ 
posure, such searching, biting winds and freez¬ 
ing weather, so many days of disappointing ex¬ 
periences? 
Poeta nascifur, non iit; and so with the duck 
shooter. The passion for it must be born in 
him. If one could always get a big bunch of 
fowl, the sport would soon lose its charm, but 
the very uncertainty of the day—breezy and 
snappy, a fair to good chance, calm and warm, 
a poor show^—and the fact that it requires 
knowledge, the how to do it, and the experi¬ 
ence and skill to stop the fowl in their rapid 
flight or scramble to get out of the way, and 
the many other things that happen for or against. 
all contribute to make an enthusiast. 
To George H. Mackay are due the thanks of 
the people for accomplishing the protection of 
the terns on Muskege Island, their principal 
breeding ground in Massachusetts. For some 
years he prevented the shooting of these beau¬ 
tiful birds and the wholesale gathering of the 
eggs which some of the residents of Nantucket 
and Tuckernuck islands were accustomed to get 
in large quantities. 
Douglas Frazer has passed beyond. So with 
a tribute to his genial disposition and enjoyable 
companionship, we drop the curtain. 
Joseph R. Kendall. 
Hunting in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., Feb. lo.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Owing to the exceedingly un¬ 
favorable weather that has prevailed during the 
month of January and part of February, there 
has been very little doing in the line of hunt¬ 
ing anywhere in the State. During the past 
thirty days there have been but two or three 
clear ones, and the hunters who ventured forth to 
try their luck then returned with very slim bags 
of either ducks or quail. Reports indicate a 
great scattering of the flocks and in some sec¬ 
tions the sport may be considered at an end 
for this season. This is particularly true of the 
Suisun and Sonoma marshes and it is unlikely 
that any of the clubs with preserves there will 
make any attempt to do further shooting. In 
the event of the weather clearing up for awhile 
it is thought there may be some good shooting 
again around the head of San Pablo Bay, but 
at the present time even this favorite resting 
ground is deserted. 
Thousands of ducks are to be seen in the San 
Joaquin valley, but they are scattered over an 
immense area, and hunting is almost out of the 
question. The duck season as well as the quail 
season is rapidly drawing to a close and un¬ 
less fair weather comes there are few sports¬ 
men who will venture forth. The members of 
the Empire Gun Club are finding fair sport at 
their preserve at Elkhorn, in Monterey county, 
but this place is favorably located and is one 
of the few exceptions to the rule. Quail shoot¬ 
ing continues to be poor, even in the most 
favored sections, and although sportsmen figure 
that a dry spell or some cold days would better 
conditions, they are not very hopeful. The past 
season has been a very unsatisfactory one for 
lovers of quail shooting and there are many ex¬ 
cellent shots who have gone through the entire 
season without securing a full bag of these birds 
on any day’s sport. This sport appears to be 
getting worse every year and it is the opinion 
of many that the birds are rapidly diminish 
ing in numbers, while others argue that weather 
conditions have been responsible for the poor 
hunting during late years. A. P. B. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
