The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-06 00:00:00

DUCK-SHOOTING AL LOA G POINT.

(From a Correspondent of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times.)
A few years ago, very early one October morning, being
deep in the land of dreams, methought Gabriel blew his
trumpet, and playfully, like the addressal to the merry
Swiss boy, bade me "arise" and walk up to the captain's
office and settle. Says Ito myself, within myself, "I'm a
dead man sure, and this is examination-day." Feeling,
like the King of the Cannibal Islands, that I had "gone to
kingdom come," I was wondering how things stood on the
books, and if the account was all debit, how I should ever
g.t it balanced, and whether when I'd been there ten
thousand years on an antiseptic diet, I should have any
less days to continue the proceeding. Not looking hope-
fully at all at the prospect and the Plutonian shore, I was
" made alive" to hurry and drop conjecture by Gabriel's de-
liberately punching me with his trumpet in the hindmost
portion of my humanity. Feeling, naturally, that he was
rather " crowding a mourner," I drew off and was just
about to give him "one," when I awoke to find my friend
endeavouring to convince me that a little more sleep or any
more slumber was out of the question if I intended to get
under weigh that morning.
So I tumbled out, as they say aboard ship, and not being
fully arrived at my senses, I could not help thinking that it
was just as well for Gabriel that he did not catch that fel-
low intended for him on the portion of his celestial face
divine which the poetic describers of pugilistic encounters
beautifully term the "kisser," else he would have had bard
work to have blown his own trumpet, and I could not but
think, all things considered, that it was just as well I woke
up; for ho had trebly the advantage of me, being in his
own element and having wings and a trumpet, and would
probably have "sent me to grass," or elsewhere.
With dressing and breakfast little time was lost, and I
was soon on my winding way for Erie. 'T was pleasant
to escape from the everlasting monotony of our Little Ped-
dington and the sound of bow-bells (Gannet's); to breathe
an atmosphere of freedom for a few weeks, delivered from
the coils of the serpent propriety, in whose embrace we all
writhe and suffer tortures equal to Laocoon.
This feeling of escape from the jaws of scandal—from
the flowery, pekoe conversation of our Christian neigh-
bour, and ledger, and brokers, and butchers, gives a won-
derful energy to starting for

" The wilderness,
For a few days,"
even though the result may not be all our fancy painted it,
and so we got quite easily and pleasantly over what is in
itself by no means a pleasant journey.
We rode by rail first to Buffalo, then to Caledonia,
thence, over heavy roads in a lumber wagon, twenty-two
miles to Port London, where we wore to embark for Long
Point—and now my story begins.
We were three X., Y., Z. The first by no means the
representative of an unknown quantity, as we used to con-
sider it at school, but a whole-souled, vigorous homo. The
second, first of Christians, good fellows and shots, who has
since been called to his long home, and whose genial, kindly
manners and honesty of purpose were as attractive as his
good-natured face. Lastly, myself, the Omega of the
party.
The only craft we could get was an abortion in
model, viz., a wall-sided schooner boat, with a bluff
bow, and run like a molasses hogshead, forty-odd
feet long, and about five feet beam ; her foremast
was stepped almost in the eyes of her mainmast,
well aft, with a bowsprit three feet long ; her sails
were very narrow, with a good deal of • hoist. She was
decked over, with a trunk just high enough to sit in and
large enough to hold two, with standing room sufficiently
spacious to admit the legs of the man at the helm. The
tiller was made of iron, about a foot long, and bent like the
handle of a grindstone. Amidships she had a hatch nearly
ten feet long and almost the width of the boat, with no-
thing to bold it down in case the sea came over her.
In this crazy craft, drawing very little water, ballasted
with only a few wheelbarrows full of sand and our dun-
nage,—which, luckily, was very heavy, and to which fact
I attribute our salvation—we started.

The wind was nearly aft, and being off shore we were
not aware how hard it blew, and we left under all sail,
but had hardly passed the entrance of the harbour when
it was found necessary to douse the mainsail, and we be-
came aware that the breeze was more than fresh. Soon
we discovered that our Palinurns was a novice—a black-
smith by trade, and knew as much about a boat and her
management as a hog does about the Apocalypse. He had
been tempted by tho devil, and the idea that she went
cheap, to invest in her, and concluded that a man at the
helm was all that could be required, were he blacksmith)
horse-chaueter, or sailor.
This son of Vulcan was soon brought to a realising
sense of the fact that, if his ignorance had heretofore been
bliss, 'twas by no means folly to avail himself of whatever
wisdom and experience others might have, and, after
going through as many changes of colour as a chameleon,
he fairly hulked and ceded his prerogative. "rwas trust
to luck and do the best you could, and it was, as Jack
says, "blowing a funeral." There was no getting back, as
the wind would have been " dead on end," and there w as
not a possibility of working her on the wind ; so we kept
on, rolling gunwale under, and seeming every moment as
if we should " turn turtle." The jib was stowed and we
were under foresail alone, and too much of that ; but we
could not reef it, there being no points.

We were fairly in for it, with seeming chance of going
to*.leeward of the Point, into the middle of the lake, and
our hopes for the future were about as good as those of the
"three wise men of Gotham."
We expected every momentthe sail would jibe over,
and then good-bye to the mast, which would have been a
highly agreeable kettle of fish, and the way she yawed
about was a caution to the saltest kind of sinners.
After two hours of this pleasant pastime, which seemed
an eternity, we approached the land, and, as the wind
canted a little, we could keep her up more, and the danger
of going out into the expanse of waters thereby lessened.
On we went, and soon saw that directly ahead of us was a
shoal, and the water most considerably lively upon it.
There was nothing to do bnt " let her rip," and trust to
the " little cherub that sits up aloft." I remember my
doubtful feelings as to what was to be the result. Would
she plump and knock her bottom out of her and the water
broach over us—would she roll over and consign us to
" What's his name," under the waves, or would she d:ive
over it? Fate, and the fact that " those born to be
hung will never bo drowned," favoured us, and striking
and twisting, and laying down to it and surging—
" thump, bump, bump, thump, like the ghost in Don Gio-
vanni," we hammered over.
In a short time we entered tho creek that leads to the
shanties, and as we could not got up with our ballyhoo we
transferred the traps to punter's skiffs, and left the son of
Muleiber to seek
,his own salvation—who, for his sins, I
pray, like his prototype, may ever go " pede clause."
Like St. Paul, I have been in " perils by sea, in perils

on land," but I never came so near, in my opinion, to
losing the number of my mess as 1 did on that occasion.
Arrived at the landing, we toted our traps into a clean
well-built, comfortable shanty, surrounded with banks of
black-walnut, with a table and stove in the centre of it.
This shanty had been loaned to us by a gentleman who
had built it, and we were comfortable as possible.
There are several shanties at Long Point. One belongs
to Harry—the redoubtable Harry, head of all things, and
prime mover, caterer, centre, and king. The punters oc-
cupy one by themselves, and the surrounding ones have
been built by those persons who have gone there habitually.
I speak of several years ago. I have heard lately that Long
Point, or that portion of it where the shooting is, has been
sold to a party of Canadian gentlemen, and as Harry was a
squatter, probably things have changed.
Long Point is a narrow peninsula, extending some 25
miles or more into the lake, quite remote from civilisation.
In the bight, at the centre of which are the shanties, aro
extended fields of wild rice, stretching two miles or more
towards the lake, and running several miles parallel to the
land ; and it is to this resort that the ducks go. for food.
I don't know any place where there are so many varieties
of ducks, and where they are in such fine condition.
As it was late when we arrived, and the punters were
off, we waited till next day before trying our luck, and
contented ourselves with preparations.
Betimes next morning we were astir, and each started
under the guidance of his particular Moses to punt him to
the promised spot. Tho worthy Ayres—estimable, good-
natured, and respectable—fell to my lot, and guns, decoys,
ammunition-boxes, and lastly, nit leastly in the eyes of a
punter, whisky, being all aboard, we pushed off.
The style of shooting is a charming one. A nice, long,
stiff, but light punt, with a comfortable seat and plenty of
room, floats you over different depths of water—sometimes
very shoal, sometimes four or five feet deep—through these
rice-fields to the edge of the fields and the lake, where,
pushing the boat into a bunch of rice, you bido your time,

after setting the decoys.
All the way mallards, widgeon, and black ducks are
getting up before you, and you have quite a number of
shots before you get to your stand.
Soon the birds begin to head for the feeding grounds,
and the sport and success vary according to the weather.
If a still, sunny day, the flight is not so good ;is on a more
windy one. Towards night you leave the spot occupied
during the day, and push nearer home to await the night
flight.
This comes on just about twilight, and, the number of
birds that whiz and whistle and whir above and around
you is extraordinary. You load and fire, and fire and load
till darkuess renders it but folly to continue any longer.
Then comes the "pick up." Very many have fallen too
far off to find, many wounded have skulked away, and so
you must content yourself with those you aro lucky enough
to find in your immediate vicinity.
The marking down and recollections of the punters are
something extraordinary, and the amount of birds found
greatly in advance of what one could believe possible.
The result of our day's shooting was ninety-two birds to
three boats, and the species were cauvassbacks (three were
got), red -heads, American widgeon, blue-bills, grey ducks,
black ducks, and mallards—and all in splendid condition.
Next morning, though windy and raining, we started
again; but after a few hours of drenching and discomfort,
boat half full of water and guns wet, we concluded, if that
was sport, we had as lief be miserable, and pushed home.
In the night the wind increased to what M sea we should

log as half a gale; and one unlucky schooner, laden with
gunpowder, came ashore. The gentlemanly mato—brim-
ful of kindly feeling, generosity, and whisky—infringing
slightly on the eighth commandment, which makes it so
easy to give away what belongs to another, bestowed with
a freedom truly lavish, eight or ten kegs upon the punters.
These, with a wise precaution and for their safe keeping,
were placed in their shanty, in pleasant proximity to the
pipe smokers, and about four feet from a red hot stove. I
shall never forget the look of dismay and alarm of "Y,"
when he discovered the locality of the combustible—and
really there was serious reason for contemplation. 'Twas
no joke, after escaping Scylla the lake, to be blown to
Gaily West by Charybdis the powder.
The punters were, in the words of the song, "a fine set
of fellows," full of fun and spirits, animal and ardent, and,
being alive to any proposition to " make dull care avannt,"
acceded with readiness to the motion of one of their num-
ber to explode a keg or two, and thus wake snakes, the
echoes, and their sleeping neighbours. Accordingly, the
next night, after we were snugly:onseonced iu our bucks,
dreaming of ducks, and geese, and swans, and were killing
right and left, there came a peal as if the whole stack of
artillery empyrean had exploded at once. What had taken
place wo did not know, but, concluding that precaution
was the better part of valour, we turned out.

These playful fellows were about to renew the experi-
ment, delighted with the success of their first effort, but
expostulation, in terms equally strong as polite, induced
them to forego a repetition of the amusement. So we
turned iu again.feeling strongly the necessity of the prar3r
to be " delivered from battle, and murder, and sudden
death."
The day after the blow the weather came in bright and
pleasant, and we promised ourselves much sport, as every'
thing was favourable. We took our positions and were
getting along famously—birds plenty and decoying
well
when our attention was drawn to a continuous loud shout-
ing about half a mile to leeward of us. At first we ear
posed it to be either skylarking or hailing some compa-
nions by another boat, but it continued so long and waS
peculiar that Ayres expressed his fears some accident had
occurred. As there were several boats nearer than our-
selves, we did not move down to learn the occasion of the
uproar, but continued our shooting. In about half as
hour we were informed by parties in one of the boats
returning by our stand, that an awful accident had
occurred.

It seems that a Canadian gentleman and his punter were
both shooting, standing up in their boat ; the gentlentsa
put Lis gun up b shoot at some birds coming towards
thorn and following them, and fired just as the barrels
came in line with the punter's head. The man was killed
instantly, and half Lis head blown off.
The horror of the thing, and the fact that we could n°
longer enjoy our sport, stopped the day's proceedings, and
we went back to the shanty, packed our ducks to be shiPP'"
home, trusting they would arrive in good order—but faith
in railroads is as foolish as in princes—and, after much
delay, they arrived in a condition much "higher than
kite," and dispensing an aroma so unlike Araby that they
were consigned to the dock.
We stayed, after this, several days, with good lust
attending our shooting, but were never free from the efo
of the accident upon our minds. The unfortunate Ouse
was our neighbour, and his condition was little better tb°l
a crazy man, and the poor punter's body lay in the boat in
which he was killed, covered with a blanket, awaiting the

arrival of the coroner.
We left in a good, able boat belonging to Harry, all
after a sail of eight miles arrived at Port William 1071
started homeward. The shooting at Long Point le as go°'
as one can desire; the manner of doing it pleasant act'
easy ; the variety of the birds vary, and their condition call
hardly be excelled. What can a man wish for more ?
have had some experience in the West and South, fie'
also the Chesapeake, but Long Point is as good as so?''
and the purchasers or lessees have pitched their tents 111
pleasant places.