64 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



shades running from rich reds through orange 

 to gleaming yellow. The rain glistening on 

 these warmly tinted stems made them unnatu- 

 rally brilliant. 



On the shores of some of the lagoons, or form- 

 ing small conical islands in their midst, were 

 white heaps of broken clam-shells. The shells 

 when disturbed seemed to be embedded in fine 

 black soil, like that left by long-extinguished 

 fires. When these shell-heaps were first ex- 

 plored they contained bones of many kinds of fish 

 and birds, including fragments of that extinct 

 bird, the great auk. They also yielded broken 

 pieces of roughly ornamented pottery, bits of 

 copper, and stone implements of the Indians 

 who had made the Ipswich River and its sand- 

 hills one of their principal camping-grounds. 

 This region has given to relic-hunters bushels 

 of arrow-heads, stone knives, and hatchets. 



As we approached the largest of the lagoons, 

 which covered several acres, black ducks began 

 to appear, flying in all directions. They rose 

 not only from the large lagoon, but from many 

 smaller pools hidden among the network of 

 dunes. Over a hundred were in the air at 

 once. Crows, too, and gulls joined in the 

 winged stampede caused by our coming. One 

 flock of crows flying towards Cape Ann later in 

 the afternoon numbered eighty-three birds. Our 



