LOWER KLAMATH LAKE 297 



artist dare paint, of birds in vast numbers, it was the views 

 of Mt. Shasta which made our days there memorable. 

 Although forty miles away, Shasta seen across the sea of 

 tules as an effective foreground, rose with surprising 

 grandeur. Gleaming white it swept in graceful lines up- 

 ward, and still upward, so far above any other visible earth- 

 ly thing, so peaceful, so majestic, so supreme, that it domin- 

 ated the landscape like an embodiment of godliness. Now it 

 was rose-tinged with coming day ; now startling in the clear- 

 ness of morning ; now hazy and cloud-wreathed in the after- 

 noon ; now soft and luminous in the afterglow of evening ; 

 but always it was inspiring. 



Attracted by a flock of White Pelicans in the north- 

 eastern part of the lake, we steered toward them only to find 

 that they were roosting, not nesting. Thence we skirted the 

 tules on the eastern side of the lake, and, at sunset, attemp- 

 ted to land for the night, but it was dark before we found a 

 place where we could penetrate the margin of tules, which 

 was often a mile or more in width. Fortunately we were 

 near the only cabin we saw on the lake, and from its owner 

 we secured enough wood for a fire on which to boil our 

 coffee. 



With no guide to direct us, we had unconsciously gone as 

 far from the bird islands as it was possible to do, and it was 

 not until the afternoon of the next day that they were found. 

 After a superficial view of the surprising number of bird 

 colonies occupying them, we ran the launch to the home of a 

 man named Kellear who had taken up a homestead on an 

 island hill in the sea of tules between the lake and Keno, 

 about eight miles from the bird rookeries. Here we found 

 excellent water, wood, and a comfortable straw bed in the 

 cowyard, and here we established our headquarters. 



The bird islands of Lower Klamath Lake are as unusual 

 as the lake itself. In place of rocky reefs, sandy bars, or 

 grass-grown mud-flats, they are composed solely of tules 

 which, about their borders, are matted into thick beds of 



