220 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
not alight on the part thus defended. It was composed 
of sweet-oil and oil of turpentine, with a little oil of 
spearmint, and camphor. However, I finally concluded 
that the remedy was worse than the disease. It was so 
disagreeable and inconvenient to have your face and 
hands covered with such a mixture. 
Three large slate-colored birds of the jay genus ( Gar- 
rulus Canadensis ), the Canada-jay, moose-bird, meat-bird, 
or what not, came flitting silently and by degrees toward 
me, and hopped down the limbs inquisitively to within 
seven or eight feet. They were more clumsy and not 
nearly so handsome as the blue-jay. Fish-hawks, from 
the lake, uttered their sharp w r histling notes low over the 
top of the forest near me, as if they were anxious about 
a nest there. 
After I had sat there some time, I noticed at this fork 
in the path a tree which had been blazed, and the letters 
“ Chamb. L.” written on it with red chalk. This I knew 
to mean Chamberlain Lake. So I concluded that on the 
whole we w r ere on the right course, though as we had 
come nearly two miles, and saw no signs of Mud Pond, 
I did harbor the suspicion that we might be on a direct 
course to Chamberlain Lake, leaving out Mud Pond. 
This I found by my map would be about five miles north¬ 
easterly, and I then took the bearing by my compass. 
My companion having returned with his bag, and also 
defended his face and hands with the insect-wash, we set 
forward again. The walking rapidly grew worse, and 
the path more indistinct, and at length, after passing 
through a patch of calla palustris, still abundantly in 
bloom, we found ourselves in a more open and regular 
swamp, made less passable than ordinary by the unusual 
wetness of the season. We sank a foot deep in water 
