The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-15

which has been pointed straight at
what seems like a solid bank, shoots
accurately into tiny opening of creek,
so narrow that boat with oars could
not find room in it, so shoal that only
a bubble Of a canoe could float in it,.
and so full of sudden Windings that no
ordinary boatman could ever get
around the bends with anything ex-
cept disastrous splashing and showing.
Here is a log juttng into the stream
and the gunner points silently into the
water alongside Three soft feathers
are floating on the black pool, and they
have been dropped within a very few
seconds. There has been no sound of
fleeing duck; the chances are that the
birds have swum around the point
and are unsuspicious-
hmm ediately the canoe lessons its
speed and moves so slowly that it
might we'll be the chip that floats
along near it. A twirl of the silent pad
die and it heads In shore so close that
it all but touches the overhanging
bushes Another unheard twirl and it's
nose just peeps out from under the
cover, so that the gunner can look
around the bend and-b0omi boomi
High overhead, outlined against the
sky, flee black shapes. like crosses fly
ing. and in an instant are gone. not to
settle again till they drop with indig-
nant duck-taIk in some slough or hid
den creek perhaps ten miles away or
even twenty, for twenty miles mean
only ten minutes fight for a black
duck or a blue bill in haste to go some
where.
In the sullen black water ahead
there are two CLEANS of purest white
and dingy black, with a metallic sheen
/ OF green where one great wing is out
spread They are two black ducks.
Getting Four Shots In.
Didn't think I'd get this fellow, -
says the gunner. f'Struek me just as I
pulled the trigger that I hadn't swung
far enough ahead on him. He was
! going like the wind and I don't think
that I aimed more than half a foot
ahead Of him Can't imagine how
The canoe is showed into the bank
and the two exchange places, the pad
der taking his turn at the gun.
Again begins the slow progress. Sud
denly, as the boat slips around a
point Of drowned land, along the other
( side of the creek comes a long line
skimming close to the surface. To the
man who has never seen a skein of
duck going straight ahead at TOP speed.
the line would look like some mon
strOus creature skiT1Tning the water
with a dozen paddle-lIke fins beating
] ferceIy. The gunner swing his barrels
till thew point a good four feet ahead
I of the leader, and fires. Instantly, even
/ before the stricken bird has finished
tumbling into the water. the line is
broken and the birds scatter wildly,
| giving the second barrel a chance to
reach its victim
Out 20 the shells and in go two
fresh ones just in time to blaze two
7 more messages at the survivors who
have reformed and wheeled into gum
shot again. One bird drops. In another
instant the rest are only specks beyond
( the tree tops.
( Rarely does the snap-shooter get op-
/ portunity to choose the time and con-
dition of fire as does the man who
shoots from a blind over decoys; and
I this opportunity to pick shots is a great
part Of the pleasure to many hunters
/ who pride themselves on the difficult
/ birds that they select and who viii let
the nearest and sloWest duck go in or
I der to swing on some extremely speedy
one that is fast getting out of range
Shooting Over Dec0ys.
The day Of the man behind decoys is
! less arduous than that of the snap
shooter, whose canoe often covers
twenty miles IN a day But the day
Of the other man begins earlier.
His decoys must be out and he must
have hidden himself silently in his
blind before the duck begins to fly.
and that means that he must be out on
the water in the starlight. for the wild
duck Is an early bird indeed.
Long before there comes that mys-