JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



rolled ourselves in our blankets be- 

 fore a fire of palmetto "bones." 



Early the next morning we were 

 astir and wondered "where we were 

 at." We decided that if we had a 

 little more than held our own the 

 preceeding day and now were within 

 say forty miles of Salt Lake we had 

 accomplished all that we could ex- 

 pect under the circumstances. After 

 breakfast we visited the cane patch. 

 After watching a great live man feed 

 cane stalks slowly, one after another, 

 to the horizontal iron rollers, much 

 as a woman feeds clothes to a wring- 

 ing machine, but far more leisurely, 

 the Edvicator asked in an off hand 

 manner, as if he had no interest at 

 stake in the answer, how far it was to 

 Salt Lake. The answer "ten miles" 

 came out so unexpectedly that I, in 

 my surprise came near revealing our 

 situation. "But why do you all ask 

 that question?" continued our inform- 

 ant, "you gentlemen are, it appeal's 

 like, from the No'th yet you seem to 

 know this river like a Floridian to 

 take this cut off 'tis mighty few of the 

 river pilots knows it, though hit saves 

 one -half the distance between Harney 

 and Salt Lake." Didn't we have an 

 attack of the "big head" though! 

 Here we were within ten miles of our 

 objective point and Puzzle Lake 

 wasn't in it, and in fact we hadn't 

 been in it, I mean in Puzzle Lake. If 

 we had accomplished so much acci- 

 dentally, why couldnt we hope to 

 bring about all other results intui- 

 tively? 



That was about the position we 

 were in, for after buying a small quan- 

 tity of hog and hominy together with 

 some of the new and delicious sj^rup, 

 hot from the kettle, we set out upon 

 our journey without asking for any 

 directions and why should we? 

 Hadn't we found the "cut off" via 

 Persimmon Hamak as the cane patch 

 was called, a "cut off" barely known 

 to native born pilots. The owner of 

 the mill told us that his- crew were 

 soon going to Salt Lake in a row 

 boat, on the wav to their homes in 

 La Grange to spend Christmas and 

 by following them we should "avoid 

 all danger of missing our way." That 

 clsuse rather hurt our self conceit and 

 besides that, to shoot over a locality 

 through which a boat had already 

 precceded us wasn't at all according 

 to our ideas. 



We expected to reach the lake by 

 ten o'clock, still believing it was 

 simply a bulge in the river. We pull- 

 ed down past the hamak where we 

 had passed the night, then came a 

 large space of water closely filled with 

 aquatic plants which a few days later 

 we learned was Mud Lake and that 

 here we should have diverged due 

 east, instead we continued on by an 

 abandoned cane field, its cabin almost 

 in ruins, a mound wsing in the center 

 of the patch gave evidence that its 

 site was what is termed in southern 

 parlance an "Indian old field." After 

 this we entered a seemingly endless 

 succession of cane brake reeds and 

 water plants. Birds became plentier 

 and it seemed to us far less suspicious. 

 The weather since our introduction 

 to the State had been, with the ex- 

 ception of the days on Pine Island, 

 like that of New England's Indian 

 summer and this day proved no ex- 

 ception to the common rule, so per- 

 haps it isn't strange that with new 

 wonders constantly revealing them- 

 selves to us that time flew faster than 

 we realized, till finding ourselves in 

 a very small lake the only apparent 

 exit to which was the very opening 

 by which we had entered it, we paus- 

 ed for consultation and examining 

 our watches, were surprised to find it 

 was high noon. Past twelve and 

 we had reckoned on being at Salt 

 Lake two hours ago! No landmarks 

 could be seen in any direction, nothing 

 but one vast prairie of waving cane. 



While eating our lunch, which as 

 usual we had cooked before leaving 

 camp in the morning, we decided that 

 rather than to turn and take our 

 "back tracks" that we would, if we 

 could see clear water on either side 

 of us, force our boat into it if possible. 

 By standing up on the boat thwarts 

 we discovered what looked as if it 

 might be the river's channel on our 

 right, and by breaking down the wall 

 of reeds before us with an oar and 

 then pushing with our united strength 

 we succeeded little by little in work- 

 ing through. What we had mistaken 

 for the river proved to be but another 

 lagoon or "lake" which soon came to 

 an end, then ensued another series of 

 pushing and again we were in clear 

 water. 



So passed the afternoon, varied 

 only as the lagoons and barriers of 

 cane varied in extent, save when we 



