WINTER 37
birds, the swishing of high flights of duck far out of reach, the call of a goose and the bang of a distant gun at intervals break the silence; but otherwise all is wrapped in dreamy noonday still- ness. Then, of a sudden, more successive flights of duck come whizzing past, and shooting re- commences, Another lull follows, only to be succeeded by more flights, and so on through the day. By previous arrangement a stop is made for lunch and to give the duck an oppor- tunity of settling, then shooting is renewed till nightfall.
From this time onward, on three or four days in each month, the duck-shooting on this famous lake continues. The weather now gets gradually colder, till by December there are sixteen degrees of frost. All the leaves have now left the trees. The grass is quite brown. But the days are ntarly always fine and clear. And though there will be thick ice and long icicles in the early morning, by ten or eleven all the ice not in the shade has disappeared, the air is pleasantly warm, and there is seldom any wind.
Christmas brings a round of festivities, dances, dinners, and children’s parties, for even in the winter
as many as seventy or eighty will assemble at a 8a
