Penobscot Bay, Maine.
1896
July 8
  Sky half-filled with clouds but sun shining brightly most of the
day. Wind S.W., light in forenoon, fresh in afternoon.
  We started for Isle au Haut this morning but having almost
no wind and a head tide at first we did not reach our
destination until past ten o'clock. Anchoring in a little cove
at the N.E. extremity of the island we landed at a place where
there was a small, shallow, fresh water pond just inside the beach
ridge. To our right rose a steep, rocky slope covered with dense
evergreen woods. In front, bordering the eastern shore for half a
mile or more, stretched a succession of pastures more or less
grown up to spruces and balsams with thickets of alders, black
alders, elders, wild rose bushes & other shrubs in the damp
hollows. Sweet fern & bayberry were both abundant in these
pastures but the former although very much greener & more
thrifty-looking than our Massachusetts sweet fern had almost
no smell. The bayberry, on the other hand, was quite as fragrant
as any I have ever seen. Gray birches were abundant in these
pastures in fact quite as much so as the paper birches.
  We crossed a rapid-flowing & very pretty brook & finally came
to an extensive swamp very like the swamps on Cape Cod, with birches,
maples, alders, elders & various other shrubs forming a low but
dense cover. On a rocky knoll bordering this swamp were two
[delete]spreading[/delete] red oaks, trees 10-12 inches at the but, 25 or 30 feet
high, and with very wide-spreading tops. As this knoll commanded
a wide view over the swamp and across a cultivated field to
wooded slopes & the high central ridge of the island beyond I
spent nearly an hour sitting under the oaks watching & listening
for birds. Watrous meanwhile crossed the field and ascended to
the summit of the island. I could trace his progress
fairly accurately by the movements of the crows as they circled