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Lake Umbagog.
Whale-back Cove
1897.
Sept. 7.
(No 2)
the water literally covered with Wood Ducks' feathers
and abundant signs of the recent presence of a number
of these birds were visable[sic] [visible] all along the shores & on
the logs that extended out into the creek.
[margin]Duck signs[/margin]
  This discovery led us to return to the place later
in the day, Will rowing us in the large boat. We
left Purdie to botanize on the marsh further down
the shore & entered the creek a little before sunset.
As we did so a flock of fully twenty Wood Ducks
rose from near the upper end and went off over
the woods in the direction of Pine Hill Pond
on the Megalloway[sic] [Magalloway]. Thinking that they would surely
return later I concealed myself on the shore near
their feeding ground while Will took the boat up
into a brook & out of sight. Near the place where
I landed he showed me an Otter slide that had
been much used last spring. It was simply a
sloping bank on the edge of the woods where the
Otter had amused himself sufficiently to wear quite
through the moss forming a smooth track six or
seven feet long by about two feet wide. Near the
head of the slide the ground was literally covered
with fish scales & bones. Will afterwards found fresh
tracks of the Otter along the brook into which he
had taken the boat.
[margin] Big flock of
wood Ducks [/margin]
[margin] Otter slide [/margin]
  We were disappointed in our shooting for the
Wood Ducks did not return but nevertheless I
have rarely spent a more profitable [delete] two hours [/delete] evening.
Not for an instant did the interest flag and
at times it was intense. But before describing the