SCENERY OF THE SIS-KY-OUE MOUNTAINS. 275 



coloured cinnamon teal, the noisy bald-pate, and a 

 host of others, are either floating on the water or 

 circling round in pairs, quacking angry remon- 

 strances at such an unjustifiable prying into their 

 nuptial haunts. Overhead, vieing with the swal- 

 lows iii rapidity and grace of flight, countless 

 Terns (Sterna Fosteri] whirl in mazy circles : their 

 black heads, grey and white liveries, and orange- 

 yellow beaks, show to great advantage against the 

 sombre green of the swallows, amid which they 

 wing their way. Behind me, and far to the 

 right, the Sis-ky-oue Mountains, in many a rugged 

 peak, bound the sky-line, their slopes descending 

 in an unbroken surface of pine-trees to the grassy 

 flats at their base. To my left, the river that feeds 

 this rushy lake winds through the green expanse, 

 like a line of twisted silver, far as the eye can scan 

 its course ; along its bank my string of mules, 

 in dingy file, pace slowly on : the tinkle of the 

 bell-horse, but faintly audible, bids me hasten 

 after them, and leave a scene the like of which 

 I shall never perhaps gaze on again. I did not 

 see any nests of the Tern, although I have but 

 little doubt they breed about these lakes. 



Follow the stream and pass a second kind of 

 rushy lake, not nearly so large as the one behind, 

 and reach the southern end of the great Klamath 



T 2 



