A Duck Hunt in the Bahama Islands 
Getting Your Game in the Tropics Is Sometimes 
DURING the fall and winter of 1922 
the writer was in charge of the 
office of the Bahamas-Cuban Company 
at their sawmill situated in the British 
West Indies, on the Island of Abaco. 
Abaco is located about two hundred 
miles off the east coast of Florida, al- 
most directly opposite Palm Beach, and 
with the exception of Andros Island, is 
the largest of the Bahamas. It is a 
long, narrow strip of land about ninety 
miles in length and varying in width 
from seven to twenty miles. 
There are no game animals whatever 
on this island, with the possible excep- 
tion of a few wild hogs. There are, 
however, large numbers of semi-tropi- 
cal birds, and during the winter months 
there are a large number of ducks 
among the small islands, or cays as they 
are called. The island is thickly wooded 

Page 661 


Fraught with Difficulties 
By J. Ms MURRAY 
with pine trees which are practically 
the only trees there, with the exception 
of an occasional dogwood or cedar, and 
there is very little on which animal life 
could subsist. 
About the first of December, two 
native out-islanders came to Norman’s 
Castle for supplies, and they told me 
that in passing John’s Cay, a small 
island eight miles north, they had seen 
a large number of ducks. So Dr. 
Stewart, the company physician, a 
young Englishman, and I started mak- 
ing our plans for a duck hunt Christ- 
mas Day. 
You may say that this was quite a 
while in advance to prepare for an 
eight mile trip, but when I say that we 
cnly had mail and communication with 
the outside world by means of a small 
round trip to Nassau every two weeks, 
—perhaps, if the wind was fair, you 
can understand why it was necessary 
to prepare so far in advance, as we had 
to send to Nassau for our ammuni- 
tion, etc. 
However, we made up a party of six, 
composed of Dr. Stewart, Capt. Tom 
Malone of the Schooner “Doughboy,” 
Chief Engineer Chas. Thompson of the 
Schooner “Citta-di-Trani,”’ myself and 
two native guides, Pommie Lockwood 
and George Kerr. 
At 3:30 o’clock on the morning of the 
25th, we left Norman’s Castle in the 
“Doughboy’s” motor boat. Everything 
went fine for the first four miles which 
were straight up the coast. We then 
turned around a head of land and in 
among the dozens of small islands 

two masted schooner which made a (Continued on page 698) 
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A mother black duck and her brood 

