io8 



Sometimes, however, he varies the cry, and 

 asks very plainly : " Who are you ? O, who 

 Tfuktaeem M^ are you?" There was a loon on the Big 

 ^^l?^^^-^^ Squattuk lake, where I camped one summer, 

 who was full of inquisitiveness as a blue jay. 

 He lived alone at one end of the lake ; while 

 his mate, with her brood of two, lived at the 

 other end, nine miles away. Every morning 

 and evening he came close to my camp — 

 very much nearer than is usual; for loons 

 are wild and shy in the wilderness — to cry 

 out his challenge. Once, late at night, I 

 flashed a lantern at the end of the old log 

 that served as a landing for the canoes, 

 where I had heard strange ripples; and 

 there was Hukweem, examining everything 

 with the greatest curiosity. 



Every unusual thing in our doings made 

 him inquisitive to know all about it. Once, 

 when I started down the lake with a fair 

 wind, and a small spruce set up in the bow 

 of my canoe for a sail, he followed me four 

 or five miles, calling all the way. And when 

 I came back to camp at twilight with a big 

 bear in the canoe, his shaggy head showing 



