It makes things much simpler to
understand, when you are camped deep in the wilderness, and the night
falls, and out of the misty darkness under the farther shore comes a
wild shivering call that makes one's nerves tingle till he finds out
about it--_Where are you? O where are you?_ That is just like Hukweem.
Sometimes, however, he varies the cry, and asks very plainly: "Who are
you? O who are you?" There was a loon on the Big Squattuk lake, where
I camped one summer, which was full of inquisitiveness as a blue jay.
He lived alone at one end of the lake, while his mate, with her brood
of two, lived at the other end, nine miles away. Every morning and
evening he came close to my camp--very much nearer than is usual, for
loons are wild and shy in the wilderness--to cry out his challenge.
Once, late at night, I flashed a lantern at the end of the old log
that served as a landing for the canoes, where I had heard strange
ripples; and there was Hukweem, examining everything with the greatest
curiosity.
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