WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS 



horns for mounting, and I slipped away to search for the haunt 

 of the Heron. 



The row up the river was delightful. For once the veil of 

 nature was lifted everywhere. I could see as far as my eyes 

 could penetrate, and even the water hid no mysteries. The air 

 was clear and cool, touched with the odor of balsam, and sweep- 

 ing in light breezes. The sky was a great arch of blue, with lazy 

 floating clouds, and the sun not too ardent in his attentions. 

 On either hand the marsh was teeming with life. There were 

 tracks along the water edge where deer and bear came down to 

 drink, small water-rats and beaver lived along the banks, and in 

 the rushes were Duck, Teal, Plover, Heron, every kind of north- 

 ern water-bird you could mention. This river was the first of my 

 experience to give up its secrets. The bed was white sand, washed 

 of every impurity by a swift current, and the water was pure and 

 clear. At a depth of twenty and even thirty feet I could see 

 every detail of the bed. 



I have not time to tell of its wonders and mysteries in mineral 

 formation, and its dainty growing vines and mosses. But the 

 water folk! If you never saw such a spot you can not dream how 

 beautiful it is. The flowers along the bank and the birds and but- 

 terflies of the air were not more gaily colored than the fish of that 

 little river. Every shade of silver was striped and mottled with 

 green, yellow, blue and red. Pike that looked half as long as the 

 boat shot past or darted under it. Big black bass, the kind that 

 wreck your tackle and keep it, swam lazily unless moved to a sud- 

 den dart after small fry. There were a few rainbow trout, in- 

 numerable speckled perch, shad, and the most beautiful big 

 sunfish. Occasionally an eel, monster turtles, sometimes a musk- 

 rat and a few water-puppies came slowly into sight and as slowly 

 vanished. Oh, I could not row very fast on that river ! And it was 

 no wonder Herons and Cranes stalked with slowly -lifted feet 



164 



