set in, and the brant congregated in long columns, flap- 

 ping their wings and making the most deafening outcries. 

 Our guides said : ' ' The birds are preparing to start. The 

 weather will settle by morning;'' but after the fog came a 

 furious gale, with vivid flashes of lightning, loud peals of 

 thunder and down-pouring of rain. This condition of 

 affairs lasted all night, and for once our confldence in the 

 brant's wisdom and judgment was shaken. But lo and 

 behold, this morning the sun arose bright and warm, witli 

 a Southwest wind, and up and away the l^rant were flying 

 Northward. First a series of swooping circles, rising 

 higher and higher in the air, a pause, then off they go by 

 the thousands, in flocks of from three to five hundred 

 carefully marshaled and efficiently led by some old gander, 

 who will allow his followers no rest for the soles of their 

 feet until tlie Bay of Fundy or Prince Edward's Island is 

 reached. 



This afternoon, no doubt, other flocks equally as 

 large will reach here from the South, stopping to rest 

 and to feed before they again resume their journey to 

 their mysterious and unknown nesting place. As the 

 one conversation, the one aim of the "nine on us" is 

 brant, we have become saturated with tlie theme, and we 

 think brant, dream l)rant, talk hrant and shoot brant. 

 One of the party has l)een worked upon .so much ])y the 

 excitement that at the card table — for there's a pack 

 down here — he will throw down his hand and wildly 

 exclaim: "I want to shoot a brant!'' In bed he will 

 toss wearily from side to side as the others sit and watch 

 him, and he will moan, " I want to shoot a brant." After 

 a while a little tiny snore is heard, then a faint nuirmur, 



96 



