Fog Is a Puzzlement 2 ( )r> 



tamanous, or spirit, accountable for them? Did they think 

 that evil deeds occurred while these ground clouds choked 

 the land? Did they stay close to their camps as they did at 

 night? Here were many things to ask students of anthro- 

 pology. 



That early morning I encountered many things which 

 would have puzzled Herbie. When I headed the canoe to- 

 ward the east I heard thousands of quick splashes merged 

 into a continuous pattern, followed by a light roar for a few 

 seconds and then by the sounds of many more splashes. As 

 the canoe continued to the east this succession occurred sev- 

 eral times. I think Herbie probably would not have bothered 

 to give it a local explanation. To him they would have been 

 porpoises off the port bow, or flying fishes leaving the water 

 to escape their pursuers, or some other exotic creatures. I am 

 sure that he would not have interpreted this activity as the 

 rolling of a flock of baldpates, these handsome little ducks 

 which spend much of the late fall and early winter in the 

 open water of the bay. I could hear their calls, wheezy and 

 musical, like the cries of the first dolls which talked when a 

 bellows-like contrivance located amidship was squeezed. I 

 could visualize the action of the birds as the nearest strip 

 would noisily rise and fly over the birds farther away and 

 then land in the first unoccupied water. This maneuver 

 would be repeated by the next nearest strip, until some part 

 of the flock was nearly always in motion, and the whole ef- 

 fect was that of a cylinder rolling and advancing. 



By the time the baldpates had left the area I heard the 

 crows calling as they moved away from one of the little is- 

 lands which appeared in the center of the bay when the 

 water was low. The place must have furnished good feeding, 

 for these black opportunists who never overlooked good food 

 could always be seen hopping over it. 



To mention difficulty in getting over a four hundred acre 

 bay seems absurd until one thinks of it in terms of almost 



