Moose-Hunting, Salmon-Fishing and Other Sketches of Sport; Being the Record of Personal Experiences of Hunting Wild Game in Canada (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1902. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... chapter xi. goose-shooting at derby island, fox harbour, on the northumbebland stb ait, nova sootia. This strait lies between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia North, and extends far up into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The harbours on each of its shores are numerous, and many of them in deep indentures, varying from three to five miles. Among these may be named Wallace, Pugwash, and Pictou. The tide ebbs and flows rapidly, with considerable rise and fall, so that at low water there are great clam-flats, the feeding-ground of immense flocks of ducks, brant and Canadian geese, in the spring and autumn, on their migration from their southern to their northern home, and vice versd. The larger geese arrive in March and April, the season making a difference of a few days; and the length of stay depends also on the weather. In the open season the brants begin to appear the first week in April, and remain well into May, when they become so fat they don't care to fly much. In the autumn they come on the scene, both brants and geese, in September, the former leaving in November, and the latter, if the weather is at all open, tarrying until about the 20th of December, then taking up winter quarters in the harbours and flats on the North Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. These harbours have always been great shooting-grounds, but have only in recent years been the resort of outside gunners. On some of the islands in the harbour buildings have been erected, and all the appliances in the way of boats, decoys, duck-punts, tubs, iceboats, procured, so that, thus equipped, vi...