teal, widgeon, and
other kinds, the names of which Dick did not know, were
numerous. They had been molested so little that they were quite
tame, and it was so easy to kill them in quantities that the
element of sport was entirely lacking.

Dick did not fancy shooting at a range of a dozen yards or so
into a dense flock of wild ducks that would not go away, and he
wished also to save as many as he could of their shot cartridges,
for he had an idea that he and his brother would remain in the
valley a long time. But both he and Albert wanted good supplies
of duck and geese, which were certainly toothsome and succulent,
and they were taking a pride, too, in filling the Annex with the
best things that the mountains could afford. Hence Dick did some
deep thinking and finally evolved a plan, being aided in his
thoughts by earlier experience in Illinois marshes.

He would trap the ducks and geese instead of shooting them, and
he and Albert at once set about the task of making the trap.
This idea was not original with Dick. As so many others have
been, he was, in part, and unconscious imitator. He planted in
the shallow water a series of hoops, graded in height, the
largest being in the deepest water, while they diminished
steadily in size as they came nearer to the land. They made the
hoops of split saplings, and planted them about four feet apart.

Then the covered all these hoops with a netting, the total length
of which was about twenty-five feet. They also faced each hoop
with a netting, leaving an aperture large enough for the ducts to
enter. It was long and tedious work to make the netting, as this
was done by cutting the hide of an elk and the hide of a mule
deer into strips and plaiting the strips on the hoops. They then
had a network tunnel, at the smaller end of which they
constructed an inclosure five or six feet square by means of
stout poles which they thrust into the mud, and the same network
covering which they used on the tunnel.

"It's like going in at the big end of a horn and coming out at
the little one into a cell," said Albert. "Will it work?"

"Work?" replied Dick. "Of course, it will. You just wait and
you'll see."

Albert looked out upon the lake, where many ducks were swimming
about placidly, and he raised his hand.

"Oh, foolish birds!" he apostrophized. "Here is your enemy,
man, making before your very eyes the snare that will lead you to
destruction, and you go on taking no