240 A BIRCH-BARK CANOE TRIP 



appeared around us by many signs. The antlers were good enough 

 to carry home. 



We reached the lakes without further adventures, killing a 

 few partridges and some blue-wing and shield ducks as we went 

 along. At the outlet of the Upper Lake we caught a number of 

 silvery-sided trout, very sweet eating, very much superior in 

 flavour to the large and coarse trout we had been killing below. 



The lakes, with the exception of the Upper Lake, which is 

 environed by a fine sierra of well-wooded hills, would not strike 

 Nova Scotians as remarkably beautiful, for they are much inferior 

 to the famous Rosignol chain of lakes in Queen's county, and 

 dozens of -others that could be named ; but they are rather celebrated 

 in this part of New Brunswick. They are well wooded to the 

 very brink .with a tangled, impenetrable forest, and are much 

 resorted to by wild-fowl. In the Lower Lake we found one[deep cove 

 where grew rich beds of aquatic plants, arrow-heads, white and 

 yellow lilies, water fern and jelly plant swarming with wild duck 

 of all sorts. Scared at our approach they rose on the wing. We 

 landed, and made our camp in the concealment afforded by a 

 pleasant grove of spruce, not far distant, where the soil was carpeted 

 with springy moss. Building a blind on the shore, we awaited the 

 return of our feathered friends, and had an excellent evening's 

 sport. Not only did I bag the commoner wild-fowi the black 

 duck (Anas obscura), the American merganser (Merganser Ameri- 

 canus), the shield drake (Merganser senator), the green-winged 

 teal (Anas carolinensis) , but I also shot a pair of wood ducks 

 (Aix sponsa), the drake of which species is one of the most exquisitely 

 coloured birds of North America. Our fare for the next few days 

 if monotonous was very palatable. We saw numbers of hawks 

 about, and one golden eagle on the wing, and in the evening found 

 our camp visited by two great long-eared owls (Bubo Virginianus). 

 Musquash abounded and plashed about the lakes in great numbers. 

 Their houses, shaped like domes, were very numerous on the shallow 

 reed marshes. 



Whenever a camp was made here, the familiar moose bird, 

 or Canadian jay (Perisoreus canadensis), flitted around us in great 

 numbers, and acted as scavengers, gleaning up the scraps of meat 

 that were thrown out. They have remarkable powers of mocking 

 or imitating almost any noise. They frequently whistle like a 

 man, and mock all the forest songsters in turn. Joe says if a dog 

 is starving he will not touch their flesh, however temptingly cooked 

 on the principle, perhaps, that one of the scavenger tribe is 

 sacred to the rest. Joe's name for this bird was ' Whiskey Jack'. 



On returning down stream we disturbed a bear in a small cove 



