Ducking in a Gale. 
It was Jan. 7, a day which strewed with wrecks 
ie coast from New England to Hatteras and 
hich cost lives not a few. 
The wind had blown furiously during the lat- 
■r part of the night, and at daylight it roared 
lore fiercely than ever, while the rain, driveic 
gainst windows and shingles, lashed the wind- 
ard side of the house with repeated blows. It 
as not a day to venture far from the fireplace, 
one wished comfort as comfort is usually un- 
trstood, but for me that day comfort meant 
>me shots at ducks. It was two years since I 
id visited the old grounds, and since I had shot 
a duck, and a little thing like a storm was not 
lough to postpone this, my first day on the 
arsh. 
Down at the boat house the usual morning 
ithering of waiting boatmen stood looking out 
•er the wind-swept channel. John, my man, 
as with them, and when he saw me dressed 
r shooting, he began to tie a reef in his sail, 
d a little later we were dashing down the nar- 
ws, the boat heeling well over, and the two or 
ree inches of rain water in her slapping about 
til I took the scoop and began to bail. 
The driving rain hid most of the landscape, 
t from time to time we saw a recognized land- 
irk which kept us on our course. 
Meanwhile at the boathouse we had left but 
short time before there was hurrying to and 
>. A squall of rain, fiercer than usual, had 
1 our boat from view, and when the squall 
d blown by, its sail was no longer seen. Some- 
e declared that we had capsized, and two 
>tor boats were sent to our rescue. When 
■y reached the mouth of the Narrows, how- 
:r, they met another boat scudding to shelter, 
ose occupant declared that we were all right, 
1 then a little later they discovered our sail, 
1 it appeared that we were making fairly good 
ather. 
Vs we rushed along through the blinding rain 
1 spray we were constantly coming upon flocks 
geese, sitting out in the open water, head to 
storm, and apparently untroubled by rain or 
id. So heavy were some of the rain squalls 
t several times we found ourselves without 
'ning in the very midst of a flock of geese. 
2n, indeed, there was excitement—for the 
is which-rose all about us, those that we 
passed sometimes flying almost over the boat, 
as it seemed within oar’s length of us. With 
geese were not a few ducks, some of them 
vasbacks, others little ruddies, the booby of 
times, which in happy—for him—days gone 
was esteemed too small game to be worth a 
rge of shot. Then they used to come to the 
■>ys, and swim around and feed among them. 
" e never shot them. Since, however, they 
e come to bring in the markets the same 
e as redheads, the local gunners persecute 
n unmercifully and destroy great numbers, 
ur destination was a pond lying in the cen- 
">f a marshy island, where a number c^f ducks 
been using, and we hoped that during the 
day some of these would return to their feed¬ 
ing ground and would then corrie to our decoys. 
While we were building our blind and putting 
out our decoys, the wind and rain continued; 
the wind fell somewhat, but the rain poured 
down harder than ever. 
About 9 o’clock a mallard came in, swung 
around in front of the blind, and settled beauti¬ 
fully to the decoys. It was my first shot for 
two years, and perhaps I was too eager. At all 
events when I fired I struck her only with the 
side of the charge. She began to fall, but fear¬ 
ing a cripple I gave her the other barrel and she 
fell dead. A little later the wind dropped, but 
the rain continued to pour so that the surface 
of the pond was bubbling from the splashing 
rain drops. A little later the wind failed entirely, 
the rain ceased, patches of blue appeared in 
the western sky and soon the sun was shining 
and the bow of promise spanned the northeast¬ 
ern heavens. 
This did not last long. Again clouds, at first 
hazy and gray and then darker, hurried out from 
the west, and covered the whole heavens and 
rain began again. It came in heavy showers, or 
in light drizzles, or sometimes even as a mere 
mist; but the wind constantly increased, and 
veering to the southwest, blew harder and harder. 
Meantime a few birds had come in; a pair of 
hairy crowns, detected as they were coming like 
lightning over the marsh, were dropped right 
and left by a shot that gave me great satisfaction. 
An old black duck flying low over the marsh saw 
the decoys, came in with confidence, swung in and 
tried to light between the decoys and the marsh, 
and then as I rose to my feet, started on with a 
tremendous rustling of feathers and a heroic 
effort to get up speed, but fell just outside the 
decoys. Then I made a stupid blunder. A pair 
of mallards came in, swung about high over¬ 
head, and as from their actions it was evident 
that they were not coming down, I let drive at 
them right and left and made a clean miss on 
both, for they went away apparently unharmed. 
A little later I was looking down to see whether 
anything in the blind was exposed to the water, 
when raising my eyes, I saw a duck gracefully 
dropping over the decoys and square in front 
of me. The movements that I made to reach the 
gun startled the duck, but he had been too close 
and he did not escape. 
From a pretty bunch of five widgeons that 
circled high over the blind I had the luck to 
pick out a pair. Four of them were flying to¬ 
gether and one a little ahead, and by great luck I 
called down the leader and then one of the fol¬ 
lowing four. Then came a series of discouraging 
and inexcusable misses, which I will not detail. 
During all this time the wind kept blowing 
harder and harder. Soon it was a gale; a little 
later almost a hurricane. The puffs of wind 
striking a standing man, pushed him away like 
the violent thrust of a strong man’s arm, the 
reeds of the marsh bowed before the fury of the 
wind, and then rising again, were once more 
laid almost level; while their leafy tops were 
whipped and twisted from the canes and whirled 
away over the marsh. The blind built of the 
canes of the sedge was blown flat, and the water 
from the pond on whose border we stood was 
caught up in the air and whirled about so that 
the pond’s surface was hidden by the mist. 
Now and then a flock of ducks or geese flew 
by seemingly hardly able to control themselves 
and to keep themselves right side up. Two or 
three bunches of ducks tried to stop to our de- 
r 
GEORGE GILLARD, A FAMOUS NEWFOUNDLAND GUIDE. 
The caribou was shot by W. J. Ehrich. 
