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the unwelcome news that the wind was working around and 

 blowing fresh, and that if we did not want to be marooned on 

 the rock for a week or so, we had better pack up and prepare 

 for the long sail back. We were just preparing to start when 

 a fishing schooner was seen headed for the rock. It then oc- 

 •curred to us to engage the schooner to carry us back, taking 

 our small boat in tow. 



When the party landed, the skipper readily came to terms 

 and agreed to start back for Grosse Isle at four o'clock. With 

 a couple of extra hours at our disposal, therefore, we scrambled 

 about the rock until our time was up, only to find that mean- 

 while the captain and all the rest of the men had decided to have 

 a birthday party. Now a Magdalen Island birthday party is 

 never complete without a certain kind of liquid refreshment, 

 which is partaken of very freely. The result of the party is not 

 difficult to guess. Instead of 4 P. M., it was just 7 o'clock when 

 we got our anchor aboard, and after we had narrowly missed 

 being swept down on North Bird Rock, we succeeded in coaxing 

 the skipper and mate into the cabin. Prest then took the wheel, 

 and about 2:30 A.M. we dropped our anchor off Grosse Isle. 

 In another half hour we were snugly tucked away at Ez Rankin's, 

 and slept for nearly twelve hours without a break. 



On the 24th of June we again started for East Point. Our 

 camp, which we had left for about three days, we found un- 

 disturbed, and while Wilcox started to renovate it and prepare 

 lunch, Prest and I went to the Egg Nubbles. These nubbles are a 

 collection of small hillocks, surrounded by ponds and wet marshes 

 and covered with thick clumps of grass and low bushes. It 

 was on these nubbles that Mr. Job found his nest of the Bluebill 

 or Scaup Duck, and we decided to look them over as a last 

 chance of finding a Black Duck's nest. We had scarcely reached 

 the third nubble, when a fine, large Black Duck flew up almost 

 in my face, disclosing her nest of eight eggs embedded in a mass 

 of black down. This was probably a second laying, as the 

 date was exceptionally late for fresh eggs of this species. On 

 the following day we found no less than three broods aggregating 

 about thirty young birds, which had been out of the egg at least 



