171 



THE OOLOGIST. 



at the base of which he informed us, we 

 should find a lumber "shack" which 

 was closed for the summer months. 



After travelling about 5 miles, we sud- 

 denly came to where the trail split in 

 two, one section diverging to the south- 

 west and the other pointing due west. 



An animated discussion followed as 

 to which trail to take, M. favoring the 

 westerly route, myself the southwester- 

 ly; eventually we decided to take the 

 westerly and started again. After fol- 

 lowing this trail about 3 miles we sud- 

 denly came upon another "ranch," 

 where the trail seemed to terminate. 



Upon making enquiries, we were told 

 to keep right along up a certain valley, 

 for such and such a distance and then 

 by mancBuvering from certain points 

 (which we never found) we should strike 

 the right trail to take us to the foot of 

 the big "butte." 



With growing presentiments that, 

 that trail would be hard to find, we 

 started afresh. 



All went well until we reached the 

 top of a I'ise, and then we found stretch- 

 ing away below us on all sides a valley, 

 through which there had at some time 

 been a fire, and the ground was thickly 

 strewn with fallen logs and rank under- 

 growth. 



I asked M. if he was going back and 

 he said "not much," and as I seconded 

 him on the spot we decided to trust to 

 luck and get to the bottom of the valley 

 some how. 



To put it briefly, we made all fast. I 

 started and after some 20 minutes, dur- 

 ing which our good old "cayuse" pulled 

 us over logs and stumps of every con- 

 ceivable shape and size, we arrived at 

 the bottom with nothing wrong, except 

 that one wheel of the buckboard was 

 badly strained and everything well 

 shaken up. It was nothing short of 

 marvellous that we never smashed the 

 buckboard. 



In a short time we found the trail 

 again and about 20 minutes' driving 



brought us to the lumber ' 'shack, ' 'which 

 was situated near the edge of a dense 

 pine bush at the base of a big hill. 



Upon inspection, we found the ' 'shack" 

 door securely fastened and it impossible 

 to obtain entrance by that way. How- 

 ever, M. was equal to the occasion, for 

 he quietly slipped round to the back 

 and I presently heard him tearing 

 boards from somewhere, and upon in- 

 vestigating, was just in time to see his 

 feet disappearing through a square hole 

 in the logs, which was evidently the 

 window. 



From the inside we managed to open 

 the door, and then we found our domi- 

 cile was not such a bad place after all. 

 There was a good stove, cooking uten- 

 cils and sundry other domestic parapher- 

 nalia. 



The first thing was to refi'esh the in- 

 ner man, and after preparing and par- 

 taking of a good meal, it was nearly 

 dark, and after smoking a pipe we 

 turned in as we were pretty well tired, 

 and expected a hard day's work on the 

 morrow. 



G. F. DippiE, 

 Toronto, Canada. 



To be continued. 



The Oalifomia Clapper Rail. 



The California Clapper Rail was 

 formerly abundant on all salt marshes 

 in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay, 

 but, owing to the inroads of numerous 

 sportsmen and still more numerous pot 

 hunters this fine bird was almost ex- 

 terminated, which caused the Supervis- 

 ors of Alameda and San Mateo counties, 

 in which counties these Rails were es- 

 pecially abundant, to create a closed 

 season from the spring of 1893 to the 

 fall of 1895 to prevent total extermina- 

 tion. The open season formerly com- 

 menced Sept. 1st and extended to 

 March 1st, but later on was modified so 

 that the opening occurred Sept. 15th, 



