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8 THE CONDOR I Vol. IV About the middle of September I was joined by Mr. Luther J. Goldman with an outfit of horses and we determined to make a trip around to the east side of the lake. Most of our road lay in heavy sand close to the lake shore through a coun- try bright with yellow chrysothamnus blossoms. We passed the end of the Mono Crater range and travelled in a broad uneven sage-brush plain--a plain which rises gradually toward some low nut-pine mountains on the rim of the Mono basin. The lake is evidently rising gradually for in a number of places dead brush extends out into the water some distance. Two islands occcupy the center of the lake, one being very light and the other dark. On cool mornings steam is easily seen rising from the hot springs which are on the islands--or at least on the light one. There are also hot springs along the sh?re and old spring formations are of very common occurrence. The turreted and often deeply fene- strated lime rock gives a somewhat peculiar and weird aspect to parts of the xvater edge. That morning the lake was smooth as glass and of light clear blue. Thou- sands of ducks, grebes, and gulls dotted the surface as far as the eye could reach, and close in to shore little squadrons of northern phalaropes swam in circles after fairly tame. When riam visited the found them much than they proved man and I made middle of Septera- gulls stood in long, the sunlit beach Dr. C. Hart Mer- lake in August he more abundant to be when Gold- our trip about the ber. California shining lines on and ?vere also very MONO L?K[ FROM WIST flies, reminding one strongly of rudderless boats in an eddying current. The ducks, most of them probably shovellers, mallards and green-winged teal, proved very wild, and flew at five hundred yards. When north winds drive them in large numbers near shore, Indians and some few whites hide behind blinds made of sage brush and mow down the unsuspecting birds in great numbers. The phalaropes come in in countless hundreds and likewise fall easy prey to pot- hunters. The species is locally called 'Mono Lake pigeon' and as a rule they are