36 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 16-No. 3 



far up the mountain side; and again, wlien 

 tlie sun put up its first rosy shaft of light 

 in the east, tliey first of all woke the echoes 

 and welcomed the coming day. 



The morning of .June 28th broke bright 

 and fair, and we were up betimes, drying our 

 clothing and preparing for the day's tramp. 



What a task it is to get things straightened 

 out after a wet day in the woods. Shoes 

 are hard, clothes are wet, guns are dirty and 

 often rusty, but patience brings things out 

 all right in the end, and the briglit sun gave 

 token of a more pleasant day than the pre- 

 ceding, and work went off easier, with brighter 

 prospects ahead. 



We got away early, and struck up the 

 lumber road for a few rods, to the head of 

 the brook, and then headed for the top of 

 the divide. 



The axe of the lumberman had probably 

 never been struck in here, and travelling was 

 a little easier, though the underbrush made 

 it rather hard in places. 



When we at last reached the top, the slope 

 was so gradual that we were unable to get 

 any idea of the lay of the land about us, 

 except in our immediate vicinity. Here we 

 found the BlackpoU Warbler, apparently 

 breeding, and on the west slope another 

 nest of P. arcticHs, in a dead spruce, eigh- 

 teen feet above the ground. The hole was 

 dug directly beneath the stub of a limb. 



At this point we found a hurricane or 

 windfall, which is a line of fallen timber 

 which has been prostrated by a cyclone, and 

 which extended for miles in either direction. 

 Not desiring to cross this mass of interwoven 

 trees and branches, we turned down the hill 

 beside it, and soon found a small brook run- 

 ning down the side of the mountain. 



As this stream was going in just the direc- 

 tion that we desired to follow, we travelled 

 along its bed and banks until it turned across 

 the hurricane just mentioned, where we found 

 a good opportunity to cross also. 



The timber on this side the divide is not 

 very large, and is much interspersed with hard 

 wood growth, which predominated farther 

 down the stream. 



This would 1)0 a paradise of the spruce 

 gum hunter, as the trees are loaded with 

 great chunks which would make a girl's heart 

 bound with joy. Bird life was very scarce, 

 hardly one being .seen on that side the divide. 



We followed the course of this stream until 

 it had grown large enough to show trout, 

 which we jnoceeded to transfer to dry land 



(or rather to less water, for we had seen 

 nothing that looked like dry land since we 

 left the top of Mt. Willey). 



No fancy split bamboo rods, and gaudy 

 seductive files, but a lithe alder pole fitted 

 to a hook and line, which was pulled from 

 the depths of my "ditty bag," and baited 

 with a worm. Not artistic nor scientific, but 

 when I dropped that worm into a deep hole, 

 just at the lower side of a log that .spanned 

 the stream, a beauty, a foot long, took it just 

 as scientifically as if it had been one of 

 friend Bailey's finest flies; and, friends, he 

 slid down my throat that night for supper, 

 just as nicely, and was just as fine a morsel, 

 as if lie had been landed with one of Chubb's 

 rods. 



After we had got as many fish as we thought 

 would be about right for supper, we having 

 .assured ourselves that we were on the east 

 branch of the Pemigewasset, which was our 

 objective point, turned our footsteps once 

 more toward the rising sun. A course due 

 east was struck, and we plodded along, con- 

 stantly ascending the ridge, which ran nearly 

 northeast and southwest. 



After we left the river valley, we found 

 the first bit of dry land we had seen since 

 we left, and it was no great shakes at it 

 either. 



Here the ground was padded witli tracks 

 and signs of deer and bear, but we saw 

 nothing of them, though 1 heard a bear on the 

 night before, by the brook, near the camp. 



At about 4.:50 p.m. tlie conntiy ahead began 

 to look familiar, and shortly after we struck 

 the windfall on the opposite side from where 

 we were in the morning. 



The camp of tlie night before was on llu) 

 other side of tliat pile of wood, and rather 

 tlian build a new one we decided to cross it. 

 Shades of our grandfathers! but tliat was 

 a job. 



Here were great trees, torn bodily from the 

 ground and piled lengthwise, crosswise, and 

 all other-wise, slippery and often brittle, with 

 knapsack and gun to look after, and when a 

 fall of fifteen or twenty feet meant danger 

 by impalement on the cruel looking stubs 

 below. 



It took us forty-five minutes to go about 

 six hundred feet, but we got across all 

 safely, and before dark were again comfortably 

 installed at "Birch Camp," as we h.ad named 

 it, and busily engaged in refreshing the inner 

 man with broiled trout. 



Birds seen dining the day were: Black-poll 



