XIII 

 IN THE HAUNTS OF THE CANADA GOOSE 



Hawnk ! honk ! and for'ard to the Nor'ad, is the trumpet tone ; 

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

 Hawnk ! 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. 



WHEN the first cool blasts of the autumn wind give warning of 

 the approach of winter with its icy fetters, a marvellous 

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

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

 more congenial coasts of Florida and the Carolinas. This stream, 

 composed mainly of immense flights of eiders and several varieties 

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

 from headland to headland of the Atlantic seaboard, pausing 

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

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

 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 astounded 

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

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

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

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

 rocky ledge and tossing boat along the deeply indented seacoast 

 of Nova Scotia flash after flash salutes their ranks from long 

 ducking guns with queer buccaneer stocks held by hardy fishermen 

 in the intervals of fishing. 



Simultaneously there is another migration going on of nobler 

 wild fowl, brant and geese, vegetarian feeders, void of the fishy 

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

 man and epicure. 



These also come from the regions of the polar bear and iceberg, 



