iLHEy SUBMERGED EENTH 
crawled out upon the nest. First he glanced around, 
and though looking right at me, did not seem either 
to perceive or to care—I could not tell which. 
Next he smelled the egg all over, poking it with 
his nose. I thought I would now catch him red- 
handed. But either the animal was looking for 
something else, or scented danger, for directly he 
ambled down to the water’s edge and plunged. 
Muskrat houses were numerous, and it is hard not to 
suspect the occupants of enjoying something more 
than a vegetable diet. If guilty, however, Minks 
may also have a share in shedding Grebe- bleed: 
By this time I was chilled and shivering, 
began the retreat, and, after two hours and a half 
of exposure, was glad to set foot on dry land. The 
Grebes had a splendid city, no doubt, according to 
their ideas, but I did not envy them at all their 
happy, slovenly ways, or their wet civic prosperity. 
Another interesting jaunt was into the Turtle 
Mountain country, the wooded area of Dakota, 
some two thousand square miles of low, rolling, 
rocky hills, covered with a growth largely of 
poplar. Every hollow between these hills is occu- 
pied by a lake, varying in size from “ Fish Lake ”’ 
in the interior, a number of miles in length, down 
to little ponds of a few acres. They are entirely 
different from the marshy, shallow prairie lakes, or 
sloughs, being clear and deep, with pebbly bottoms 
though there are a very few that resemble the 
sloughs. The woods grow nearly or quite to the 
waters edge, and there is a border of round- 
27 
