SUMMER RAMBLES ON THE SURENDAL FJELDS. 125 
wing-clatter, and on reaching my marks found that the 
goose (alarmed, no doubt) had swum out. She sat 
very high in water about a hundred yards away, and 
a lucky shot with ball appeared almost to lift her off 
the surface. And now we found ourselves face to face 
with a double disappointment. First, there was no nest 
of any kind in that patch of scrub, so that the poor 
goose had been needlessly sacrificed, which is quite 
against my practice; secondly, I found that my faithful 
guide, who had never before failed me, knew no more of 
the local geography of Krok-vand, nor of the position 
of a reputed boat thereon, than I did myself. The lake 
being miles in extent, to attempt a search for a hidden 
boat, without the least clue to its situation, amidst 
those labyrinths of deep-wooded bays and long penin¬ 
sulas, was clearly useless. Hence, to my intense regret, 
the poor goose (which was of about the size of Anser 
albifrons ) drifted uselessly on to the shore of a pine-clad 
islet. 
This want of a boat was, of course, fatal to our plans, 
for it was impossible to reach the hundred and one islets 
with which the lake was studded, and these are always 
the favourite nesting-places of waterfowl. Of birds 
observed on this lake may be mentioned: mallards, 
many; pintails and golden-eye, several of each, besides 
other ducks of which we could not be certain as to 
their species—they probably included scaup, scoter, and 
long-tailed duck; as well as goosanders, mergansers, 
gulls (Lancs canus), whose nests we found on the 
shore, with greenshank, common and wood-sandpipers, 
brambling, dipper, and other common kinds. 
An hour’s fishing from the bank supplemented our 
