154 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Shooting and Gaming Along Southern Waters 
A What to Take and How to Use it Article 
ATURDAY, Sunday and Mon¬ 
day found us in camp waiting 
for the river to go down. Sun¬ 
day evening there was a very 
perceptible diminution in the 
water. Monday morning 
showed us we must make 
ready for an early start Tues¬ 
day, and shortly after daylight that morning 
found us under way, Sam, Alex and myself in 
the shooting boat, and Joe in the batteau loaded 
with the camp plunder, who was instructed to 
keep half a mile back of us, and thus not dis¬ 
turb the ducks that might come from up the 
river toward the shooters. Sam took his seat 
forward, Alex was seated in the stern, paddle in 
hand, and I seated myself behind Sam. 
Smoothly and silently the craft drifted down 
with the easy current, skirting willows close to 
the bank. Everything was propitious for a good 
day’s sport. Silently, for half a mile or so we 
floated, when Sam’s sharp eyes detected a bunch 
of mallards fifty yards away under the willows 
and an instant later I saw them. Alex’s strong 
arm kept the boat on her course, with scarcely a 
ripple; we glided on toward the birds; twenty- 
five yards or so was reached and at this moment 
the ducks, alarmed, flushed from under the 
cover, presenting their sides, a fatal position. 
Quickly selecting a bird I fired, and instantly 
I carried another to my left towering among the 
wateroaks. As I glanced along the rib of my 
gun, there were two ducks in line, and as the 
trigger was pressed two fine mallards pitched 
down. In the same glance around I saw Sam 
make a beautiful shot with his second barrel. 
The duck, a mallard drake, flew straight away 
for forty yards or more, curving to the left. At 
the report of Sam’s gun the bird fell, killed 
stone dead in the air, and lay motionless upon 
the water, proving the perfect aim of the 
shooter, for at that distance it was necessary 
that the bird be in the center of the pattern to 
be killed so clean. 
Scores of ducks were now flying; mallards, 
teals, spoonbills, wood-ducks, a few black ducks, 
widgeons and pintails. Canada blacks and red¬ 
head ducks do not frequent the Savannah River 
and some other southern rivers. 
We hugged the point we had now reached, 
and, well screened, took the wing shots as they 
were presented. A bunch of teals flying low, 
thirty yards away, left five of their number be¬ 
hind. Next a flock of mallards charged our 
position, and in the confusion of retreat forgot 
to carry off from the field three dead and two 
wounded. All were retrieved. A mallard drake, 
flying down stream fifty miles an hour, was 
caught by Sam, a splendid shot fully forty yards 
away. Sam said he held ten feet or more ahead 
By Dick Swiveller. 
(Concluded from February Forest and Stream ) 
of that bird. A very large flock of mallards 
next made an attempt to dislodge us by a flank 
movement from the shore side. We saw them 
just in time. For an instant the situation looked 
serious for us, but alarmed at the close 
proximity of the enemy our fire was delivered 
with so good effect as to destroy their line and 
leave four of their number dead and one wound¬ 
ed. Sam and I both made fine double shots on 
this flock. It was great sport and continued for 
half an hour or so. 
A lull now occurred in the firing, and as we 
had almost made up our minds to drop further 
down the river to the next bend, opposite bank— 
“Marse, marse! fo de lan sake flatten out; marse, 
down the rib'ber,” came in a nervous whisper 
from Alex. We looked and counted seven Canada 
geese coming straight up the river twenty feet 
or so above the water, and, by all indications, 
looking for a place to alight. We all crouched 
low, out of sight, and with suppressed excite¬ 
ment watched the great birds fly up within a 
hundred yards or so of us, and strike the water 
with loud “honks” of satisfaction. That they 
had not seen us was evident. 
Now commenced a season of patient waiting 
and watching for the geese to swim within 
range, and a tantalizing indifference on their 
part as to how long we should wait. Ten, 
fifteen, twenty minutes passed, still they swam, 
dove, fussed and washed themselves. At last 
the leader gave the signal to go ashore. Then, 
with' heads erect, and stately mien, they made 
for a point not forty yards from us. A gander 
was apparently leading the flock. 
Suddenly, as if overcome with a feeling of 
fear or wonder; as though the dread presence 
of death hovered in the air, he paused, and gave 
a brief penetrating glance over our way. The 
wary bird discovered something that caused him 
to stretch his pinions and at the same instant 
give the alarm note that sent the whole flock into 
the air. Something impelled me to look back at 
this moment—a slight movement, as it were, at 
the instant the birds left the water—and there 
was Alex partially elevated on one of the boat 
seats. In the excitement to observe the move¬ 
ments of the geese he had permitted himself to be 
seen. 
“Alex, haven’t you— 
“Massa Dick, I’s a—- 
“Have you not been on these trips enough to 
know.” 
“Ise agwan ter tell yo, Mars Dick, dat dem 
ganders wuz a—” 
“Never mind, Alex,” said Sam, “do better 
next time. I do think though, if you had kept 
out of sight we would have had a couple of 
shots. Think of the roast goose you would have 
had. Let the beat float along.” 
Slowly we drifted, and at some distance fur¬ 
ther on crossed to the opposite side. Rounding 
a point further down we came on a flock of 
greenwing teal and bagged five as they flushed. 
Blue and greenwing teal afford fine sport, and 
as a table bird are excelled only by the canvas- 
back and redhead, wild, celery fed. 
Keeping close to the shore for half a mile fur¬ 
ther, v/e located eleven ducks—six mallards, two 
wood-ducks, and three black ducks, and had a 
number of shots in which we failed to score. 
Drifting, looking for a good camping place, we 
rounded a sharp point and came upon hallf-a- 
dozen broad 'bills at the mouth of a small creek. 
They arose from the water about twenty yards 
distant. Sam killed two in beautiful style—right 
and left quartering. I missed an easy bird with 
my first shot and killed clean with my second, 
forty yards away, a far more satisfactory shot 
than if I had scored a right and left at half the 
distance. At this moment, turning to give Alex 
some instructions, I found him staring at the 
sky, mouth open, eyes glistening. I turned in 
time to see Sam make a beautiful and sensa¬ 
tional shot, and bring down a solitary Canada 
goose that at that moment came around the point 
high in the air, coming up the river. “I take 
off my hat to you, Sam. Quick eye; center of 
the choke-bore pattern; killed clean.” Retrieving 
our game we landed on the Georgia side and 
made camp by 4 o’clock. Joe soon hove in sight. 
An hour later we had a good supper; then wood 
was added to the fire and before its brightness 
and warmth we smoked the blessed pipe of 
peace and comfort, recounting the happenings 
and sport of the day. Happy days in the long 
ago, now gone forever. Now I can hear the 
soughing of the wind in the pine tree tops and 
branches, the rippling of the water that lulled 
me to sleep those nights on the banks of thp 
river. Happy days and times cannot go on for¬ 
ever in this world. So then, in the midst of 
trouble and stress let us be thankful for the 
happy hours allotted to us and make the most 
of them. 
The next morning, invigorated by perfect rest 
and sleep, I walked to the river and bathed; 
watched the sun rise gloriously, giving token of 
another fair day. It was the beginning of a good 
day’s sport we had two miles below our camp 
of the night before. No shooting was had to 
speak of until we reached the edge of a vast 
cypress swamp on the Carolina side of the river. 
The swamp was flooded, making it possible to 
penetrate it some distance with the boat. As 
our party approached the east shore, the quack¬ 
ing of ducks could be plainly heard away back 
in the swamp, and numbers were seen from our 
position. We worked our way in to a huge fall¬ 
en tree a dozen yards from the river. There 
were now hundreds of ducks in sight, feeding, 
preening and enjoying the pleasures and ameni- 
