Lake Umbagog.
1909
June 14 [June 14, 1909]
(No 11)
  When she came to it she dove and emerged on the
other side. The ducklings climbed or rather sprang to the
top of the outer log and then jumped in quick succession,
one following another very closely, over the spaces of open
water one of which was fully 4 feet wide. The height of their leaps seemed to be quite as much as 2 ft. The little birds
did this with the utmost apparent ease & precision alighting
on the logs without the least loss of balance. They looked
for all the world like so many frogs chasing one another.
The final leap was from the fourth log to the calm water
inside the boom which they struck as lightly as falling
leaves. Of all the things I saw them do to-day this
was the very prettiest & most interesting. The mother now
swam across our cove the ducklings following her in
single file each with his bill touching the bird in
front of him and bill of the leader touching the tail of
the mother. Literally there was no visible gap whatever