Lake Umbagog.
Cambridge River Marshes.
1896
Aug. 11
  Clear and very hot. Our thermometer (a poor one) stood at 90 [degrees]
for hours. At Bethel the temperature reached 102 [degrees] in the shade
before noon according to the stage driver.
  As it was dead calm through the forenoon I did
not leave Lakeside until after dinner when a fresh S.W.
breeze wafted me quickly across to Upton. In a little
cove just inside the rocky point at the mouth of the
Cambridge six Great Blue Herons were standing along the
shore four on the mud and two on low stubs. Further 
along I could see five more so that in all I had eleven
of these picturesque birds in sight at once. There were
also two Eagles, a white headed and a brown one, and
an Osprey sitting on dead trees not far from the [?].
[margin]Eagles.
Osprey.[/margin]
  Of Ducks I saw but one, a Whistler sailing about in
a cove near Peaslee's turn. The same bird was in the
same place yesterday.
[margin]Whistler[/margin]
  As I was sailing up the stretch just above Peaslee's bend
I saw something leave the high, grassy bank on the left 
and strike out across the river. At first I took it for
a Snake but as I got nearer I found it to be a large
and very peculiar Mole. It was nearly as large as a Star-nose
but its fur was of a light silvery gray, its nose tapered
to a smooth and rather blunt point and its short tail 
was covered thickly with long hair & looked, as Will Sargent
expressed it, "as bushy as a Woodchuck's". Its nose was 
perfectly bare for half-an-inch or more and of light blood red
color looking exactly as if the skin had been just stripped
off which, however, was not the case. This appendage was in
reality and flexible proboscis which the creature moved up & 
down & to both sides with great frequency & facility. Its