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narrow belt of woods bordering the shore, the walking was over soggy hummocks, with little growth upon them except moss, lichens, and coarse marsh grass.
These were succeeded by ridges of crumbling rock, between which were numerous small lakes.
The land seemed very barren of life.
Even the shores of the ponds were hardly inhabited.
No song of bird or buzz of insect broke the stillness.
Rock after rock was turned over in the vain expectation of finding living things on the damp under side at least; and the cushions of moss were broken up in the same fruitless chase.
All was barren and lifeless.
Not so on the shore, where the collecting went on rapidly.
Dredge and nets were at work all the morning, and abundant collections were made also from the little nooks and inlets of the beach.
Agassiz found two new jelly-fishes, and christened them at once as the locality suggested, one for Captain Mayne, the other for Professor Owen.
Near the shore, birds also seemed more abundant.
A pair of kelp-geese and a steamer duck were brought in, and one of the officers reported humming-birds flitting across the brook from which the Hassler's tanks were filled.
Early on the morning of the 30th, while
Houghton, Mifflin and company, New York, Boston, 1885.
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