191
Lake Umbagog
Pine Point.
1898.
August 24                  
  Sunny and warm much of the day but with thundering 
cloud masses drifting across the sky and distant thunder
late in the afternoon. Shortly after dark it began
raining and through the remainder of the night it
rained very heavily.
  I awoke at daybreak this morning and the first sound
that I heard was a rapid whuff-whuff-whuff closely
resembling the puffing of a steam engine and passing
directly over the tent. I knew at once that it was made
by the wings of some large bird and a moment later
the prolonged, quavering laugh of a Loon proclaimed the 
particular species. Loons often fly over Pine Point in
the early morning but seldom never seen by day.
[margin]Urinator
imber[/margin]
  At sunrise several birds sang rather freely for a few
minutes, a Red-eye, a Canadian Warbler and an Usnea
Warbler keeping it up the longest. I heard Pickering's Hylas
not only at sunrise but during the whole night when
I was awake.
  Just after breakfast a Brown Eagle alighted on the tall
pine in front of the camp there nearly a
minute before he discovered our presence.
[margin]Bald Eagle
alights on
our pine.[/margin]
  Late in the afternoon Gilbert discovered a Porcupine
in a poplar on the edge of the water at the extremity
of the point. He was sitting erect on a stout branch
clasping smaller branches above with his paws, in his
general attitude and the use of the fore paws reminding
us all of an Ape. When we pelted him with pebbles
he walked back along the branch and climber higher
up the main stem of the tree, skimming it exactly like a Bear.
  Will Stow and George Fairworth arrived by the boat this