80 On the trail of vanishing birds 



flew next day to Dease Lake, British Columbia, over mountains 

 and passes at 5,000 to 7,000 feet. 



Following reports of whooping cranes in Alberta, an area in 

 that province was searched by Bob Smith of the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service. No whoopers were seen. Then, with Fred Bard, 

 Smith drove 1,000 miles by car, and in a chartered plane looked 

 over Campbell Lake, near Nipawin, Saskatchewan, from where 

 other reports had come. No whoopers were seen. 



This disposed of the two "hottest" rumors then available! 



With Sewall Pettingill taking over the search job, the task was 

 resumed in May of 1946. Dr. Terris Moore piloted his own light 

 plane and Pettingill was the observer. A considerable area was 

 covered in northern Saskatchewan, and on north to the marshes 

 of Lake Claire and the western tip of Lake Athabaska. As Smith 

 and I were to do later, Sewall came amazingly close to the actual 

 nesting grounds. Other search was made farther to the south and 

 east, both on the ground and by aircraft with Bob Smith at the 

 controls. No whoopers were observed. It was PettingilFs estimate 

 that by aircraft alone he searched some 15,000 square miles of 

 country. 



In planning the 1947 search, Fred Bard and I believed that we 

 were close to the right line of migration, although we had no idea 

 whether or not the cranes made unexpected right-angled turns to 

 east or west. Although Pettingill had covered the "best" areas in 

 1946, we felt that some of this region ought to be searched again, 

 since no observers could be expected to see every corner of so vast 

 a territory on any one series of flights. 



On April 26 my family joined me in North Platte and the fol- 

 lowing day we took up the chase, only vaguely anticipating the 

 many difficulties that were in store for us. Arriving in Regina on 

 May 1, we met Bard at the Provincial Museum and held a council 

 of war. As a result of Fred's excellent publicity job, reports of 

 migrant whooping cranes had been pouring in since the previous 

 spring. These had been carefully sifted, and by plotting on a map 

 those that were considered authentic, we had a valuable picture 

 of the big birds' movements through the settled portions of 

 Saskatchewan. It seemed more than merely interesting that if 



