1252 
FOREST AND STREAM 
TELLS HOW FAR YOU WAL K 
THE AMERICAN PEDOMETER 
Regulates to Step and Registers Exact 
Distances: Simple. Accurate. Durable 
Indispensable to every 
lover of outdoor sport, and 
especially to those who 
love WALKING. Instruc¬ 
tive because of value in 
determining distances; a 
necessary adjunct to com¬ 
pass and as useful to 
SPORTSMEN. It furnishes 
the true solution of many 
a disputed question of how 
far it is to or from various 
points. Best of all 
it is a wonderful 
health promotor 
because its inter¬ 
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afford real incen¬ 
tive for WALK¬ 
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everywhere, the 
AMERICAN Ped¬ 
ometer tells the 
whole story of just 
how far you have 
travelled. 
FULLY 
GUARANTEED 
One Hundred Mile 
Pedometer, $1.50. 
Soltfiby All Dealers or Direct 
AMERICAN PEDOMETER COMPANY 
902 Chapel St., NEW HAVEN, CONN. 
J. KAM NO* Alt’* 
PRACTICAL GLASS BLOWER 
and manufacturer of artificial eyes for birds, animals 
and manufacturing purposes a specialty. Send for 
prices. All kinds of heads and skulls for furriers and 
taxidermists. 
363 CANAL STREET, NEW YORK 
Please mention “Forest and Stream” 
Will you give one family 
A 
MERRY 
XMAS 
DINNER? 
We are but your 
agents—you are 
the host. 
300.000 poor peo¬ 
ple cheered last 
Xmas in the 
U. S. by The 
Salvation 
Army. 
Help us in this 
way to get close 
to these people. 
Give them at 
least one happy 
day in the year. 
$2. OO Feeds a Family of Five 
Send Donations to Commander Miss Booth 
118 West Fourteenth Street, New York City 
Western Dept., Comm. Estill, 108 N. Dearborn St., Chicago 
Finest Hunting Field in the South 
Quail, Turkey, Deer and other Game. Guides, 
Dogs, Shells, Autos, Horseback-riding, Trapshooting, 
Boating and fishing to be had. Splendid Roads. De¬ 
lightful Climate. Magees Chlorinated Lithia Water 
free to all guests. Special rates given families. 
Ladies pleasantly entertained. 
R. H. EASLEY, Prop., Hotel Grace, Clarksville, Va. 
I “OPENING DAY” 
BREEZY LITTLE STORY WITH THE SMART 
OF THE BRINE AND SMELL OF THE SEA 
By E. V. Connet, 3 rd. 
... 
O N the morning of the opening day George 
and I left the dock in front of the house 
at one o’clock. It was blowing half a gale 
and inky black; we could hardly distinguish our 
punties which were towing behind the motor 
boat. There were three dozen duck decoys in 
the stern of each punty, and stowed safely under 
the forward decks were guns, shells, sandwiches 
and thermos bottles full of steaming hot coffee. 
We felt our way along through the dark and 
steering as well as we could by the wind, reached 
a point on the opposite side of the bay where 
the boat-hook just reached bottom, as George 
jabbed it into the water alongside the boat. After 
nosing along until we were in about four feet 
of water we lowered the hook and started off in 
the punties for shore. We were trying to find a 
certain point which we had picked out previ¬ 
ously, and as there was not a light anywhere on 
shore, it was like finding the proverbial needle. 
We reached shore about 2.45 A. M., and a long 
discussion as to where we were ensued. We fi¬ 
nally decided to go west until we came upon 
some familiar landmark, but after shoving along 
for some time the rays of our lantern failed to 
show anything we had ever seen before. Reach¬ 
ing the end of a long point we decided to stay 
put even though it was not the point we wanted 
to shoot from. 
We immediately set out the stool and pulled 
the stern of our punties up into the grass; then 
a drink of coffee, a smoke, and we put our guns 
in commission. Daylight was not due until about 
5.15, so there was nothing to do till then but 
sit in our punties and wonder where we were. 
The wind kept freshening all the time, and the 
thermometer dropping. At last a faint bluish 
streak appeared over our heads and we began 
to feel a little better. George had a watch along 
and almost wore it out looking at it. I would 
wait what seemed like half an hour, and then 
ask him what time it was; sometimes as much 
as seven and a half minutes would have elapsed. 
“Quank! Quank! Quank!” We sat up as 
though we worked by machinery and earnestly 
gazed off to the right where that welcome sound 
came from. Another streak appeared a little 
nearer the horizon and we could just see each 
other now through the grass thatching on the 
punties. Sunrise occurred officially at 54g that 
day according to the paper, and we still had a 
long wait before we could shoot. However, the 
wait was a very interesting one. Snipe began to 
whistle all around us; suddenly three tremendous 
gulls hovered right over the punties, leisurely 
flapping their big wings. Wheet—wheet—wheet— 
wheet—wheet—wheet!! A bunch of black ducks 
came into the stool, their wings whistling. I 
reached to take my pipe out of my mouth and 
off they went. Black duck can see better than 
anything on earth that I know of; it was hardly 
half light and at my first move those ducks fled. 
An interesting fact which few duck hunters take 
into consideration is that black duck can smell 
a man the way big game can; this also applies to 
brant, geese, pin-tail and several others; broad- 
bill do not seem to possess this faculty. Conse¬ 
quently one should set out his decoys to wind¬ 
ward of his stand as much as possible. If geese 
light in the water it is possible to approach them 
in a grass-covered punty from the leeward by 
pushing along with a short pole on the far side 
of the punty and going very slowly and cautious¬ 
ly. I know a guide who gets within gunshot of 
geese several times every fall in this way, while 
his colleagues wonder why they fail so often; it 
is simply that they do not know that geese can 
smell a man. Pardon me for straying so far 
from the opening day. 
A bunch of yellow-legs sped past followed by 
a lumbering old blue heron. It was light now, 
and we began to look around to find out where 
we were. Well, we were just exactly where we 
wanted to be—on the end of the point we had 
picked out—and neither of us had had any idea 
of it! 
“Here they come!” And a bunch of black duck 
came speaking in and fluttered over the stool. 
“What time is it, George?” I whispered and with 
a splash and a splutter the bunch started off. 
“Five twenty-eight,” was the answer, and I set¬ 
tled back for another wait. The stars were very 
dim now, only a few still shining; it was cloudy 
along the horizon, and the only colors in the 
sky were blues and grays of all shades. Ducks 
began to come in, one bunch after another, to 
look the decoys over. 
“Let’s set the watch ahead, and if the warden 
appears, kid him into thinking his watch is 
wrong,” I suggested; the strain on my trigger 
finger was becoming intense. “Nothin’ doin’,” 
said George, to whom the game laws are sacred. 
“Right you are, George,” said I, feeling ashamed 
of myself. George, by the way, is the best sports¬ 
man I know, and whether we bring home the 
bacon or not, it is a great pleasure to~ merely 
hunt with him. 
“Two minutes more!” and I heard the safe 
snap on George’s gun, just as I snapped mine. 
“Mark right 1 ” and about twenty black duck 
swung up the bay and started in for the stool. 
“Time’s up! Let ’em get right over the decoys. 
You take the first two and I’ll take the last I” 
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! “Get that cripple 
quick!” Bang! My heart was pounding like a 
trip hammer as we stepped into the water and 
splashed out to retrieve our birds. “Hurry up! 
Here they come!” and we scrambled back into 
our punties. The ducks swung out into the bay; 
they had seen us. In a minute I saw another 
bunch coming, and said so. “I see ’em,” said 
George. I sat there watching the bunch, and 
when they were about 150 yards away “Bang!” 
went George’s gun. “What the-!” I looked 
around to see a green-winged teal swing away 
from the stool. “Why didn’t you shoot?” asked 
George. He had thought that I was watching 
the two teal come up, and I had believed he was 
watching the same bunch I was. 
For about 30 minutes the birds continued to 
come in and we had royal sport. About a mile 
to the east of us on some posted islands and 
points it sounded like the Battle of the Marne. 
Later we found out that one party of four had 
gotten 76 ducks, and two other men had gotten 
their limit of 20 apiece. We did not do quite as 
well as that, but we were both satisfied, and hoped 
that the opening day would always be as much 
sport as this one had been. 
