316 BIRD-LIFE IN WESTERN CANADA 



we had waited until arriving at Winnipeg, where satisfac- 

 tory outfits may be hired, before securing our camp equip- 

 ment. A ten by twelve wall tent was our main shelter, while 

 a seven by seven wedge tent was used as a work-room and 

 for short trips. The frequent, heavy thunder showers kept 

 the thick prairie turf saturated with water and induced us 



r 



t 



Camp at Shoal Lake 



to floor roughly the larger tent with such boards as our 

 guide could spare from his cabin. Throughout June a camp 

 stove was by no means a luxury, and each evening, a cover 

 having been placed on the chimney-top, a fire, smudged with 

 green poplar leaves, was made, to clear the tent of mosqui- 

 toes. These insects were so numerous as to interfere with 

 field-work on the prairie and lake border during the day, 

 while the hum of their united voices about our tent at night, 

 resembled the sound of steam escaping from an engine. 

 Fortunately they were not found on the lake, nor even in 

 the quill-reeds. 



Probably no one but an ornithologist would have selec- 

 ted our camp-site, but even had the country been birdless it 

 would have had attractions of its own. There was the in- 

 spiring breadth of the prairie view; there were the endless 



