THE OOLOOIST 



28 



and fields, the birds of a more do- 

 mestic nature, to the birds of the 

 slough and reed and the birds of soli- 

 tary places. Instead of the noisy 

 kingfisher darting from his accus- 

 tomed perch on some overhanging 

 limb, watching with one eye for a fish 

 beneath and with the other on his 

 nearby home in the bank, we saw the 

 great blue heron wading knee deep 

 in some frog pond, terrorizing the in- 

 habitants in true Hun style, and 

 startled by the approach of our sub- 

 marine chaser took Its ciumsy flight 

 up the river like some great aeroplane, 

 only to be again disturbed as before. 

 At nearly every quiet pool a family of 

 black ducks or scaups looked out be- 

 wildered perhaps for the first time at 

 the sight of man, and ever and anon 

 a sora rail sent out his noisy chal- 

 lenge at our approach. An occasional 

 American Bittern was startled from 

 the waters edge and large hawks were 

 seen at distances back among the 

 scattering groves. 



In the swampy area which widens 

 as one approaches the lake, an oc- 

 casional rise of land might be seen, 

 an island as it were among the bogs. 

 Where such a place is near the river 

 it gives the semblance of a shore 

 where landing is possible. Strange to 

 say although few, yet each seemed to 

 have buildings, although as we dis- 

 covered, they were inhabitated for the 

 most part by Indians, the more so as 

 we neared the lake. After leaving 

 Highlanding where we replenished 

 our gasoline supply to the limit, for 

 we were to travel some 100 miles be- 

 fore we would again be able to get 

 more, we pushed on until it was al- 

 most dark before we could find a 

 place to even tie our boat. It was 

 where one of these rises of ground 

 came close to the river that gave us 

 mooring. There proved to be a fam- 

 ily of Scandinavians living on their 



homestead close by. They had pros- 

 pered for they had a large hip-roofed 

 barn, a good house and much stock. 

 The boys were enthusiastic about our 

 outfit and we were invited to spend 

 the balance of the evening at their 

 home and destined to accept their 

 hospitable invitation to partake of the 

 comforts of a spring bed, to us our 

 last chance for a while. But, oh, for 

 the comforts of our bed in the boat. 

 The writer gave it up, finally dressed 

 after turning his underwear inside 

 out, and sat wondering how best to 

 spend the balance of the night which 

 he envied Bud who was sawing wood 

 with ease and comfort. Not that he 

 was more used to bed bugs than I 

 was, but I guess his hide was tougher 

 and they couldn't make an impression. 

 I did succeed in getting a couple of 

 hours of sleep on the floor. That was 

 our last night for a while in — shall we 

 say civilization? The next morning 

 in our leave taking, we noticed the 

 accustomed English Sparrows about 

 the barn. It impressed us forcibly 

 away out on this frontier. With what 

 rapidity and in what great numbers 

 is this pest of the bird family inflict- 

 ing its presence on civilized man to 

 the remotest corners of the continent. 

 The day is coming when the problem 

 will have to be met. 



We took dinner that day at Neptune, 

 a store and post office, the last in our 

 course for many miles. Having re- 

 plenished our larder we began our 

 last stretch of forty miles through 

 the swamps. At times it was difficult, 

 to determine the true course of the 

 river; at times we run aground and 

 were forced to turn back to try a dif- 

 ferent opening among the reeds and 

 wild rice: and ever present were the 

 water weeds which danced the tango 

 with our propeller and got all wrapped 

 up in tlieir delight, so wrapped tliat 

 our little engine labored hard to keep 



