38 



THE OOLOGIST 



Around Red Lake in a Launch 

 By Elmer Langevin 

 Part II 

 We camped on the McMahon the 

 next day and another night; fished 

 out in the lake along the shores, down 

 the river; stripped our boat of its 

 load and the top; romped in her on 

 the tops of the largest waves we could 

 find; and like two kids that we were 

 had the time of our lives. We hunted 

 swamp birds, found a colony of yel- 

 low headed black birds, and an occa- 

 sional red wing, heard the noisy clat- 

 ter of the long-billed marsh wren and 

 the loud sonorous call of the sora 

 rail. We thought and still believe we 

 discovered a Virginia rail although it 

 was extremely hard to get a look at 

 it with our field glasses. Its call was 

 different and it seemed smaller than 

 the more common sora. The flight of 

 the black tern was on every hand and 

 away out over the lake an occasional 

 larger member of the gull family 

 could be seen, probably a common 

 tern. We thought it strange but in 

 all our trip and now about the lake 

 we did not see a single American coot. 

 The next forenoon saw us camped at 

 the narrows. If you will take your 

 map, you will see that Red Lake is 

 made up of two large lobes like the 

 figure eight, the north one beins 

 known as the Upper or North Lake 

 and the lower one as the Lower or 

 South Lake. Where these two lakej 

 join it is comparatively narrow, the 

 distance from the West point to the 

 East point being but a mile and a 

 half. These points are long sand 

 spits extending out into the waters, 

 lashed by the waves of both lakes, en- 

 tirely barren for a distance of half a 

 mile or more, especially the west 

 point on which we were now camped, 

 for upon leaving the outlet we had 

 headed west and north. This was a 

 delightful place to camp, so much to 



explore, fishing good, bathing un- 

 excelled and the wind having changed 

 was bringing the waves in mighty 

 breakers down from the Upper Lake 

 onto this north shore of this spit 

 of sand while the south shore where 

 we were now camped further down 

 behind some sheltering trees was 

 calm and still. We surprised a 

 colony of herring gulls which makes 

 its home there at the narrows. There 

 must have been some sixty to seventy- 

 five in the fiock, graceful creatures, 

 who loved these two points because 

 here they could get the breeze in 

 whatever direction the wind blew or 

 find quiet waters as they chose. We 

 tried several snap shots of them. That 

 afternoon we bathed, hurried ourselves 

 in the sands of the beach, ran wild 

 in the breakers of the North Lake, 

 visited the East point by boat, did a 

 washing in the sand — did you ever try 

 to wash clothes in clean white sand 

 and cold water of a lake? It works 

 fine. We hung our washing in the 

 trees to dry and when we left forgot 

 it, much to our chagrin. Towards dusk 

 which in this northern latitude does 

 not until about 9 or 9:30 p. m. 

 at this time of the year, we arranged 

 our boat at the waters edge for the 

 night, made our bed, secured the 

 mosquito net and some of the side 

 curtains, lit the head light of the boat, 

 a calcium carbide light, and directed 

 its rays within, and there all alone 

 in a wilderness of water and wild life, 

 we enjoyed life as only lovers of the 

 wild can enjoy it and mingled with 

 this joy the joy of music. We had 

 taken our instruments, a cornet and 

 a saxaphone, along with us and with 

 the gulls at roost on the point for an 

 audience, we played a concert to the 

 tune of the hungry mosquito which 

 danced against out net in the glare 

 of the calcium light, until weary, we 

 sank to rest and dreamed dreams of 



