igoi] Scott — Birds of Algoma. 159 



From this point on for several days we had uniform experience 

 of travel throug^h lakes and portag-es, full of interest as a canoe 

 trip, but almost void of ornithological specimens. An occasional 

 duck on the lakes, with partridge and golden-wings on the port- 

 ages composed our whole experience with the feathery tribe. Once 

 when two of us g"ot lost in the forest and had spent the greater 

 portion of the day without food, we counted it a providential thi-ng- 

 that we stumbled on a little lake where two small saw-bills were 

 sailing around. We killed one and wounded the other, but failed 

 to reach the wounded one. When we got back to camp at even- 

 tide, nearly exhausted, a loon was laughing at us from across the 

 bay. 



Passing out of Lake Panache on Saturday — a large lake 

 beautifully indented with promontories and sprinkled with islands 

 — we entered a marshy lake known as Lake Levasse. Here ducks 

 were abundant. A coot gave us so much trouble in identifying 

 him, that we didn't stop to classify any other specimen. Besides, 

 there seemed to be so many miles of this lake, and it was so over- 

 grown with rushes that it became difficult to find the channel and 

 we must get through before dark. Pushing on, we entered a 

 a picturesque river which brought us, after an hour's paddling to 

 the falls of Round Lake. Here a few cedar wax-wings that had 

 not yet gone to roost watched us pitch our tent and prepare for 

 another Sunday's rest. 



Sunday morning found a gale blowing from the east, and 

 there, riding" majestically above us, was a beautiful fish-hawk. 

 That day whilst sauntering over rocks and tracings the boundaries 

 of a great diorite upheaval, we disturbed a pair of hairy wood- 

 peckers. But what was that larger woodpecker beyond ? The 

 field-glass showed us that he had a bright orange-yellow crown 

 and black back. To us this arctic woodpecker was such a novelty 

 that we thought of collecting him. But then it was Sunday, and 

 we had no fire-arm with us but a 44 calibre rifle. We concluded 

 that to kill and skin a bird with one shot was too delicate an 

 operation, so we only aimed our field-glass until he went dipping 

 away into the depths of the forest. 



