B YRON ISLAND. I 3 



spot a few families have made their homes. The men fish 

 during the summer, while the women do all the work about 

 the house. It was a rather amusing sight to see a girl of 

 fourteen hard at work chopping wood, swinging an axe with 

 the precision of a veteran wood-cutter. 



Byron Island has an area of about four square miles, and 

 is mostly covered by a thick growth of diminutive pines. 

 While rambling around I observed several species of birds 

 which I did not expect to find on such a deserted spot. 

 Among them were Tachycineta bicolor, Cotyle riparia, Loxia 

 leucoptera, Loxia curvirostra var. americana, Silta canadensis, 

 and a few scattered Puffins {Fratercula arctica). Gulls and 

 Terns were abundant, and a solitary Blue Heron {Ardca 

 herodias) stalked with solemn strides through a small marsh 

 which had been formed in a depression of the ground by the 

 recent rains. 



On the eastern shore of Byron Island a point of sand runs 

 out into the ocean for several hundred yards, from which 

 grand sport may be had in September; but it cannot com- 

 pare with East Point, the most northern point of the con- 

 nected chain of islands. 



