276
*
Lake Umbagog.
Cambridge River.
1897.
Sept. 25
(No 3)
point after point opening out new and more picturesque
views at every turn. Hope never seems to flag here. We
have passed a dozen turns without seeing anything more
than a Solitary Sandpiper, standing leg deep in the water
tilting its body slightly as it watches us from within
a few yards, but we feel sure there must be a Duck
just around the next bend. As we approach the point
ripples roll out from under the bank on the further side
and the gun half rises to the shoulder, but it is only
a Musk rats [sic] which dives with a large splash as the
bow of the swiftly moving boat thrusts into his view.
Many and varied are these false alarms. Sometimes it
is a Kingfisher which starts from a projecting snag
with loud rattling or, most nerve-startling of all, a
Great Blue Heron may be surprised in some sheltered 
nook and come out almost in one's face squawking
outrageously & and making a loud whoof-whoof-whoof, like
the puffing on an engine, with the powerful strokes
of his big wings.
[margin]*Duck Shooting[/margin]
  From within the woods, too, if it be at all still,
come all sorts of interesting and [delete]often[/delete] more or less
mysterious sounds; the calls of various small birds,
the cackle of the Pileated Woodpecker, the thump, thump
thumping of drumming partridges and the rustling
of mice or squirrels among the dry leaves. More
rarely a succession of loud crashes among the fallen
tops [delete][?][/delete] announces the sudden rush of a startled Deer.
The sand bars & marshy places along the banks
are caused with the foot prints of these animals
but we seldom see them below the meadows. Otter
used to be numerous along the river but there are none now.