74 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



After a half hour's stay at this village, we left for another 

 group of islands to the southward. At about four o'clock 

 we came to Carrol Islet; and as it had trees on its top we 

 ascended it. Reaching its top, we prepared to stay there for 

 the night. Also one of the Indians took the canoe ashore 

 and dug up some clams ; and we had a clam bake for supper. 



That night we slept in the open air and thought we had 

 the place all to ourselves. But not. The night birds found 

 us, the owls, hawks, petrels and parrots. We were strang- 

 ers. We were trespassing and they were not slow to tell us 

 so. The petrels got so close to us that I caught one of them 

 with my hands. We slept but little till the night birds re- 

 tired at the coming of the dawn. It was eight o'clock before 

 we awoke. 



To sharpen our appetites after we arose, we went to the 

 northeasternmost part of the island. There we examined 

 some birds' nests and took a few pictures. Then we de- 

 scended down a ledge as far as we could safely go on the 

 footing at hand. But our desires were not satisfied. Far 

 below us was a ledge in hogback shape extending as a bench 

 out from the main body of the island. This was covered 

 with sea birds and their young. Birds by the hundreds were 

 there. We got a rope from our boat and slid down it to the 

 bench. And such a "Niagara" of birds followed. They 

 swooped off the narrow ridge in one continuous stream. We 

 ventured not on the land projection farther than where we 

 first landed, lest we might cause the young birds to commit 

 suicide by dumping themselves over the cliff. But we got 

 some excellent pictures, both of young birds and of the wor- 

 ried mothers. We then returned to the top of the island 

 again. 



It had been evident to me that the islands were the jotting 

 remains of promontories and headlands of the coast ad- 

 jacent and I called the attention of my colleagues to the fact, 

 as we were breakfasting. To our surprise, our guide spoke 

 up saying that that was easily explained. He continued : 



"Our people have a myth which explains the origin of the 

 islands, promontories and headlands as follows: It was 

 long ago when people were animals and animals people. 



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