254 
THE- MAINE WOODS. 
a deserted log camp here, apparently used the previous 
winter, with its “ hovel ” or barn for cattle. In the hut 
was a large fir-twig bed, raised two feet from the floor, 
occupying a large part of the single apartment, a long 
narrow table against the wall, with a stout log bench be¬ 
fore it, and above the table a small window, the only one 
there was, which admitted a feeble light. It was a sim 
pie and strong fort erected against the cold, and suggested 
what valiant trencher work had been done there. I dis¬ 
covered one or two curious wooden traps, which had not 
been used for a long time, in the woods near by. The 
principal part consisted of a long and slender pole. 
We got our dinner on the shore, on the upper side of 
the dam. As we were sitting by our fire, concealed by 
the earth bank of the dam, a long line of sheldrake, 
half grown, came waddling over it from the water below, 
passing within about a rod of us, so that we could almost 
have caught them in our hands. They were very abun¬ 
dant on all the streams and lakes which we visited, and 
* 
every two or three hours they would rush away in a long 
string over the water before us, twenty to fifty of them 
at once, rarely ever flying, but running with great rapid¬ 
ity up or down the stream, even in the midst of the most 
violent rapids, and apparently as fast up as down, or else 
crossing diagonally, the old, as it appeared, behind, and 
driving them, and flying to the front from time to time, 
as if to direct them. We also saw many small black 
dippers, which behaved in a similar manner, and, once 
or twice, a few black ducks. 
An Indian at Oldtown had told us that we should be 
obliged to carry ten miles between Telos Lake on the 
St. John’s and Second Lake on the East Branch of the 
Penobscot; but the lumberers whom w T e met assured us 
