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Show BLACK FLIES-^ ANTELOPB ISLAND CQyE. 205 found silence that reigned around me. The night was cold, and I found two great- coats exceedingly welcomes While passing from camp oyer the sand- flats, this morning, I observed a, quantity of translucent, white, pink, and blood- coloured matter, of a gelatinous, or, rather njucilaginoris character,/ spread about in coagulated masses upon the sand, whither it had apparently , been washed up frpm the lake hy, yesterday's gale.. The quantity was considerable, aijd, if the whole shore was similarly lined, must have been very great;. An incredible nu& ber of small black flies, also, perfectly covered the white sand if ear. the shore, changing its colour completely- a fact oijly revealed as the swarms rose upon-beyig disturbed by our footsteps. They, too, had apparently been driven in by the. stqrjn; for I afterward discovered that they were - almost as thick upon the water as upon the land, moving over its surface with great ease and swiftness. In the shallows left by the receding waters, .^ noticed also quite a number of ants, ( the first I had seen,) drowned seemingly by the overflow. .. Both of these injects doubtless furnish food for the gulls and snipes, which. Are almost the only birds found along the shores. Saturdayi June 15.- Daylight found the boat at the mouth of the passage ^ between Fremont and Antelope Islands, and, shortly after, we entered the beautiful little cove on the north- east side of the latter, from the . banks of which several springs trickle down from the base of a small- cliff of protruding rocks. J : The scene Tfas. calm and lovely in the extreme. The rays of the1 rising snn, glancing brightly, qver the eastern mountains*, shone upon the tiny ripples^ of the, placid little, bay, up6n whose bosom a flock of snow- white gulls was calmly floating; while the green- and gently sloping shores, covered with a luxuriant growth of rich and waving grass, contrasted strongly in our minds with the . dreary and desolate waste of sand qver which we had been roaming for the last month.' Several little mocking- birds- were shiging. gayly on the shore, and the shrill, cheerful whistle of the curlew resounded along the beach. ; Four graceful antelopes were quietly grazing on the grassy slope, while the cry of the wild duck, ' and the trumpet- note of the sandhill, crane wer^ heajcd in the distance. The whole formed a picture whieh, in this desolate region, was as wet'', come awt was rare.; >" , " ' I found,, this morning, that my conjecture respecting the food of the gulls had beqn correct* Across the little bay ran a- broad streak of froth or foam, formed by the meeting of counter currents, " |