JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Lake, for every native we consulted 

 regarding our trip liad shook Puzzle 

 Lake in our faces as the bete noire of 

 the expedition. "I reckon you all are 

 tired of life," they would remark. 

 '"Why, man pears like you alls crazy 

 to attempt a trip like that without a 

 guide may be you all might make 

 Lake Harney but if you go beyond 

 there you can never get through Puz- 

 zle Lake, nothin'll ever be heard 

 from you again if you chance it, 

 'gators and buzzards will pick your 

 bones up there among them "per- 

 rarahs" and no white man will ever 

 find your boat." 



The educator and I listened to a 

 large amount of such talk during the 

 time we were getting ready for the 

 trip but we thought a great deal of it 

 might be made in the interest of par- 

 ties desirous of guiding jobs, and 

 when later on we had pitched our tent 

 on Pine Island in beautiful Lake Har- 

 ney without having once missed our 

 way or having met with a mishap of 

 any sort we were inclined to pat our- 

 selves on the back as natural path- 

 finders. A northeast storm held us 

 close prisoners for three days here 

 but finally at about one p. m. on the 

 22nd of December, the storm abated, 

 the waves disappeared and we made 

 all haste to continue our journey, well 

 knowing that our craft could only live 

 in the calmest water and not caring 

 to tarry another night on the island. 

 Within an hour from the time we had 

 left the island we began to realize 

 that it was one thing to find our way 

 into Lake Harney and another thing 

 to find our way out of it. The whole 

 country south of the lake looked like 

 one vast water meadow, its width 

 was some ten or twelve miles but its 

 length was an unknown quantity. 

 This huge prairieC?) is pierced in 

 every direction with channels which 

 become choked with "lettuce" and 

 lily pads, and hemmed in by cane 

 brake and gigantic rushes, while else- 

 where it gives growth to a luxuriant, 

 coarse grass which sways and trem- 

 bles as the muddy current of the river 

 slowlj' courses through it, for though 

 somewhere in this waste of cane 

 brake and aquatic growth the river 

 has, or is said to have, a channel, it is 

 only necessary for steamboating for 

 here the St. Johns spreads its waters 

 out at will and a current of several 

 miles an hour may be found even 



amid its rankest vegetation. 



We failed to connect with the chan- 

 nel at all that night, though by means 

 of the small lagoons and waterways 

 we penetrated the prairie several 

 miles, when the sun now drawn near 

 to the horizon warned us that we 

 should be locating a camping place. 

 About two miles to the southwest we 

 could see a small clump of palmettos, 

 there we thought, could we make it, 

 would be dry ground but after several 

 ineffectual attempts we began to de- 

 spair of reaching it, we would with 

 much difficulty force our boat through 

 some opening in the wall of cane 

 brake only to find a denser growth of 

 cane or a mud flat balking us. Never 

 did a checker player make more 

 moves to reach the king row than did 

 we while trying to find our way to 

 that little isle, the only break in that 

 vast prairie of dancing reeds. At last 

 just as the sun dropped behind the 

 cypressas on the western boundry, 

 it revealed to us a straight, clear 

 channel to our goal. Sunset means 

 darkness in that flat country and it 

 was upon us before we had run our 

 boat up under the shadow of the trees 

 and a faint reflection caught from the 

 western sky touched their roots and 

 trunks in a manner that disheartened 

 us. "Overflowed!" we both exclaim- 

 ed in concert. 



There seemed then nothing to be 

 done but to pass the night aboard the 

 "Water Turkey" as best we could. 

 Eating a lunch we arranged our boxes 

 so that we might approximate a re- 

 clining position with a view to making 

 as easy a night of it as circumstances 

 would permit. We had but settled 

 ourselves when we were arroused by 

 the beating of heavy wings, and a 

 great blue heron flew into a tree al- 

 most over our heads. His feet could 

 hardly have touched the branch when 

 the educator's gun brought him crash- 

 ing down into the underbrush. My 

 end of the boat being nearest where 

 the bird struck, I balanced myself 

 along a fallen tree and attempted to 

 pick it up, when a misstep sent me 

 rolling off, not into the water, but on 

 as dry a piece of ground as* we could 

 have asked for. The reflection had 

 completely deceived us, and had it 

 not been for the heron, the chances 

 are we should have sat the night out 

 in our boat, to learn when daylight 

 came that we had only to take a step 



