1890
Oct.25
Lake Umbagog, Maine.
  A gray day the sun shining feebly at times. Wind
N.E. to N., light. Ther. 40 [degrees] at sunrise.
  At 10 a.m. started for Bottle Brook Pond but
near the mouth of the Megalloway we met Leavitt,
a trapper, who told us that there were no
Ducks up the river whereas he had seen nearly 
100 Black Ducks in the Sweat & Curtis meadows
this morning. We accordingly changed our
plans, turned around and went to Sweat
Meadow. It proved to be fairly swarming
with Black Ducks which were scattered
about over so wide a space that we could
do nothing with them. I landed and 
tried to stalk some of them but there
was thin ice among the grass and I
made so much noise that several of
them heard the sound and flew. We 
then paddled down into one of the
coves but were soon discovered and a
general exodus of Ducks began. One old
drake seemed to made it his special
business to alarm all the rest for he
flew up and down the meadow several
times quacking incessantly. Flock after
flock rose and went out over the woods
many of them probably not being aware
of the precise nature of the danger.
[margin]Sweat Meadow
swarming with
Black Ducks[/margin]
  After they were all gone I landed and 
concealed myself while Jim went to
Curtis Meadow with the boat to drive
them back. I waited two hours or more