182 WAKE-ROBIN 
dry branch. It suggested something quite as pleas- 
ing as the liveliest bird-song, and was if anything 
more woodsy and wild. As the yellow-bellied wood- 
pecker was the most abundant species in these 
woods, I attributed it to him. It is the one sound 
that still links itself with those scenes in my mind. 
At sunset the grouse began to drum in all parts 
of the woods about the lake. I could hear five at 
one time, thump, thump, thump, thump, thr-r-r- 
7-r-r-rr, Jt was a homely, welcome sound. As I 
returned to camp at twilight, along the shore of the 
lake, the frogs also were in full chorus. The older 
ones ripped out their responses to each other with 
terrific force and volume. I know of no other ani- 
mal capable of giving forth so much sound, in pro- 
portion to its size, as a frog. Some of these seemed 
to bellow as loud as a two-year-old bull. They 
were of immense size, and very abundant. No 
frog-eater had ever been there. Near the shore we 
felled a tree which reached far out in the lake. 
Upon the trunk and branches the frogs had soon 
collected in large numbers, and gamboled and 
splashed about the half-submerged top, like a parcel 
of schoolboys, making nearly as much noise. 
After dark, as I was frying the fish, a panful of 
the largest trout was accidentally capsized in the 
fire. With rueful countenances we contemplated 
the irreparable loss our commissariat had sustained 
by this mishap; but remembering there was virtue 
in ashes, we poked the half-consumed fish from the 
bed of coals and ate them, and they were good. 
