XIII 

 IN THE HAUNTS OF THE CANADA GOOSE 



H.iwnk ! honk ! and for'ard to the Nor'ad, is the trumpet tone ; 

 What goose can lag. or feather flag, or break the goodly cone ! 

 H.iwnk ! onward to the cool blue lakes where lie our safe love-bowers ; 

 No stop, no drop of ocean brine, near stool or hassock hoary. 

 Our travelling watchword is ' Our mates, our goslings and our glory ! ' 

 Symsonia and Labrador for us are crown 'd with flowers, 

 And not a breast on wave shall rest until that Heaven is ours. 

 Hawnk ! hawnk ! E e hawnk ! 



FRANK FORESTER. 



WI I KN the first cool blasts of the autumn wind give warning o 

 the approach of winter with its icy fetters, a m;irvi -llou; 

 stream of feathered life sallies forth from the bleak, rock-bounc 

 fiords of Labrador and Baffin's Land, setting southwards towards th< 

 more congenial coasts of Florida and the Carolinas. This stn-.im 

 composed mainly of immense flights of eiders and several vain tu > 

 of scoters, passes in the early morning and the late afternoor 

 from headland to headland of the Atlantic seaboard, pausing 

 during the mid hours of the day, to become a dark border o; 

 feathers on the edge of the ocean. An uninterrupted line of severa 

 miles may often be met with rising and falling, diving and disport 

 ing, on the long rollers rushing to the shore over sunken ledges 

 peopled with innumerable shellfish. The spectator is astoundec 

 to observe, day after day for several weeks, countless flocks sweep^ 

 ing past in rapid succession, low over the water, each moving ir 

 regular line, as if animated by one mind, defiling past as if the whol< 

 grand army of sea-fowl were having a field-day. From many ; 

 rocky ledge and tossing boat along the deeply indented seacoasl 

 of Nova Scotia flash after flash salutes their ranks fnun l<mf. 

 ducking guns with queer buccaneer stocks held by hardy fishu inn 

 in the intervals of fishing. 



Simultaneously there is another migration going on of noblei 

 wild fowl, brant and geese, vegetarian feeders, void of the n-li\ 

 flavour of their shellfish-eating cousins, hence prized by the sport* 

 man and epicure. 



