32 OUT TO LAKE ILE A LA CROSSE 



distance of land ; willows on the river-banks 

 with wave-shaded tops of fiesh new green, and, 

 on the east shore, small occasional bluffs of 

 poplar. Overhead an equal feeling of unbounded 

 vastness and beauty — far off white pillowed 

 clouds in a soft blue sky. 



Marsh Hawk. Birds very local 



To-day I observed a single Marsh Hawk. This 

 is in a way remarkable because it is the first one I 

 have seen since leaving the prairies, where they 

 are very common. But birds in Canada are 

 often very local. Their favourite haunts are con- 

 tained within great areas, and they do not 

 apparently roam far beyond them except in their 

 migration north and south. One may live years 

 in one place and never see a single bird of a 

 species that may be fairly common a hundred miles 

 or more away in country of a different type. 

 • • • . • 



In noting here those incidents I have done so 

 to give an impression of daily occurrence, the 

 like of which continued for many months while 

 travelling over 2,000 miles through Far North 

 territory. Hereafter I will not continue day to 

 day description of the country, its scenery, and 

 its wild life, but will take you boldly to the 

 subject of the chapters which deal with the most 

 interesting incidents of the expedition. 



