The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-01-07

nests, but did not have the good fortune
to find any more.
The day the Captain had brought down
the last load of provisions, we had been
ashore on two small islands, and had no
ticed the old nests of some kind Of water
fowl. This was taken no particular no
tice Of at the time, but after robbing the
CULTS nests, we began to talk about these
islands, and wondered if wild ducks hat
not been in the habit of making then
their nesting place, on account of thei
I'M accessibility to animals of any kind
from the mainland. We thought il
would be an excellent opportunity to &c
some fresh provisions, and therefore de
cided to pull out to them, and investigate
They were surrounded by open water
and when we came in sight of them w
were ove,joyed to see hundreds of wilo
ducks flying about.
We pulled our boats up on shore ant
began to look about us. The sight thai
met our eyes, was one which would have
caused any sportsman to hug himself will
joy. Wild ducks in great variety were
there, from the small 'Pit-chu-l locks q
duck much resembling our Teal, to the
large Elder duck, from which the valua-
BILE Eider-down is taken. The first thing
we did was to visit the nests of the birds
in search Of eggs, and from this trip we
returned loaded down with duck fruit
We found that the small boxes which had
held our provisions, were quite inadequate
to hold all the eggs we had obtained by
only half an hours search. What to dc
with our bonanza" was the conundrum
Of the hour. We finally decided to re
move the three hundred fathoms of whale
line from the two line-tubs, and stow
them in the tubs, as the line could better
be packed down in the boats than the
eggs. From the islands we obtained
plenty of moss, in which to pack the eggs,
which were brought in every hour, nearly
by the hatful and pockotful, from differ
ent points on the two islands. What an
egg hunt it was Poking our noses into
every crack and assure in the rocks, and
carefully examining hooks where there
might possibly be nest.
The Elder ducks were the most numer-
Gus, and we found their eggs to be the
largest. Their nests are simply little
depression made in the ground, or on a
bed of moss, in which the eggs are de-
posted, usually from six to eight in num-
Der. The ducks were quite tame and
quiet, making but little objection to hay
ing their nests rifled in this manner.
Having remained upon the islands for
over two days, and having secured all the
eggs our line tubs would hold, upwards
of hundred dozen, we made charge
upon tho ducks themselves, with rifles,
shot guns, reyolvers, sticks and stones,
and succeeded in massacreing about one
hundred and sixty of them. We could
have easily bagged as many more, but
had no more room in tho boats to spare
Intending to leave tho islands the next
morning, we packed everything up so as
to DO in readiness to depart early, but
that night the ice began to break up,
and tho rain came down in torrents. AS
our boats we're covered with good canvas
covers, which she'd water like duck, we
| did not care about leaving our dry, com
Portable quarters, to proceed on our way
through the rain, with the ice foes crush
ing and grinding around us. We had
concluded to remain where we were until
the storm was over, when our attention
was attracted shorewards, by shouts Of
men, and the bowling Of dogs.
(To DE Continued