THE SUBMERGED TENTH 



crawled out upon the nest. First he glanced around, 

 and though looking right at me, did not seem either 

 to perceive or to care I could not tell which. 

 Next he smelled the egg all over, poking it with 

 his nose. I thought I would now catch him red- 

 handed. But either the animal was looking for 

 something else, or scented danger, for directly he 

 ambled down to the water's edge and plunged. 

 Muskrat houses were numerous, and it is hard not to 

 suspect the occupants of enjoying something more 

 than a vegetable diet. If guilty, however, Minks 

 may also have a share in shedding Grebe-blood. 



By this time I was chilled and shivering, so 

 began the retreat, and, after two hours and a half 

 of exposure, was glad to set foot on dry land. The 

 Grebes had a splendid city, no doubt, according to 

 their ideas, but I did not envy them at all their 

 happy, slovenly ways, or their wet civic prosperity. 



Another interesting jaunt was into the Turtle 

 Mountain country, the wooded area of Dakota, 

 some two thousand square miles of low, rolling, 

 rocky hills, covered with a growth largely of 

 poplar. Every hollow between these hills is occu- 

 pied by a lake, varying in size from " Fish Lake J 

 in the interior, a number of miles in length, down 

 to little ponds of a few acres. They are entirely 

 different from the marshy, shallow prairie lakes, or 

 sloughs, being clear and deep, with pebbly bottoms, 

 though there are a very few that resemble the 

 sloughs. The woods grow nearly or quite to the 

 water's edge, and there is a border of round- 



27 



