

this second tree. In 
this way, using the 
felled tree for a 
ladder, I planned 
that I could make 
the ascent, 
So far so good. 
But I had _ not 
taken into consid- 
eration one thing: 
It was that there 
might be some diffi- 
culty in felling 
this third tree just 
as I wanted it—so 
that it would lean 
upon the tree par- 
allel with the one 
containing the nest. 
Well, I com- 
menced chopping. 
And as soon as I 
did, I discovered 
that now both the , 
old eagles were fly- 
ing about just above the tops of the 
trees. They didn’t let me forget that 
they were there, either. They contin- 
ued to circle about and keep up their 
piercing cries. 
HE first small spruce I chopped 
didn’t fall where I wanted it to. 
It got weak or something and toppled 
over backward. It’d taken me almost 
an hour to cut it down, because I chop 
sort of funny and don’t generally hit 
twice in the same place. And when I 
finally did succeed in felling a tree, a 
wind or something had to come along 
and send it reeling off in the wrong di- 
rection. Well, I kept this up for about 
two hours, counting a lot of rests, and 
that part of the forest began to look a 
lot different from what it did when I 
first arrived on the scene. I’d knocked 
down five trees in all and they’d all 
fallen off at crazy angles.. It looked as 

Young eaglet in nest. 
though a colony of drunken beavers had 
been at work. 
Then by some mistake in my calcula- 
tions the sixth tree fell in the right 
place. I guess all the chopping I’d 
been doing that afternoon down there 
under their home tree had got on the 
nerves of the old pair of eagles, be- 
cause they were pretty excited by this 
time. 
I didn’t exactly like the idea of kill- 
ing the old eagles, even though up in 
that country they are looked upon as 
pests and a bounty has been placed on 
them. But I knew that I’d have to or 
run the chance of being attacked up 
there in the tree. 
I hid in the bushes and shot one of 
the bald eagles but the other one was 
rather wary and wouldn’t give me a 
chance for a shot. I thought I’d scared 
him and that he wouldn’t have the nerve 
to attack me. 
I tied the rope I’d brought around my 
shoulders, slung my rifle over my back 
and began to climb. It was hard going, 
and every once in a while the muzzle 
of my rifle would catch in a limb and 
I’d have to duck back to free it before 
I could climb farther. 
ELL, I hadn’t gone far when thing's 
began to happen. I had reached the 
trunk of the small cedar by this time 
and was about sixty feet above ground. 
I had been too intent on my climbing to 
pay much attention to the eagle I hadn’t 
killed. I saw him now and I stopped 
climbing for the moment. He was 
circling closer than before. I wasn’t 
in a very secure position. I had about 
all I could do to hold on to the tree, so 
didn’t have a chance to use my rifle. 
And besides, my chances of hitting him 
while flying were not so good, I knew. 

A full grown bald eagle, surprised at fishing. Note the defensive attitude. 
I started climbing again, and that 
loud “Ch-ch-ch—chee-e-e, ch-ch-ch— 
chee-e-e-e,” came from above me. I al- 
most lost my nerve at that point and 
I know my knees weren’t altogether 
steady, for I was thinking of that story 
that had been told me about the man 
who had been found far up in the tree, 
clinging to the branches. 
T wasn’t a comforting thought, and, 
after all, I reasoned, there was no 
sense of my taking chances like that for 
the sake of a picture. 
The eagle’s actions at this: jrncture 
decided me. He swooped down and 
came much closer to me than he ever 
had before. He was a big bird and 
must have measured at least seven feet 
and a half from tip to tip. 
So I went down the tree and hid for 
almost an hour. I hadn’t seen any- 
thing of the old bird for some time 
now, and concluded that it judged I had 
left and that it had gone out to fish 
for salmon to take to the nest and feed 
the young ones there. 
Now if that were the case, I would 
probably have time to get up to the nest 
and get a picture if I hurried. 
Which I did. When I reached the 
spot where the limb I have mentioned 
jutted out from the tree I was in toward 
the big cedar, I found that things 
looked a lot different now than they did 
when I was on the firm ground looking 
up. I discovered that the limb was 
both old and partly rotten, and that 
also it did not come within five feet 
of closing the gap between the two 
trees. There was something I hadn’t 
counted on. 
I took the end of the rope I had and 
threw it over to the other tree. After 
several attempts, I succeeded in getting 
263 
