paddle and he dived, but when he 

 came up I was nearer than before. 

 He dived again, but I miscalculated 

 the direction he would take, and we 

 were fifty rods apart when he came to 

 surface this time, for I had helped to 

 widen the interval; and again he 

 laughed long and loud, and with more 

 reason than before. He maneuvered 

 so cunningly that I could not get 

 within half a dozen rods of him. Each 

 time, when he came to the siirface, 

 turning his head this way and that, he 

 coolly surveyed the water and the 

 land, and apparently chose his course 

 so that he might come up where there 

 was the widest expanse of water and 

 at the greatest distance from the boat. 

 It was surprising how quickly he made 

 up his mind and put his resolve into 

 execution. He led me at once to the 

 widest part of the pond, and could not 

 be driven from it. While he was 

 thinking one thing, I was endeavoring 

 to divine his thought. It was a pretty 

 game, played on the smooth surface of 

 the pond, man against a Loon. Some 

 times he would come up unexpectedly 

 on the other side of me, having appar- 

 ently passed directly under the boat. 

 So long-winded was he and so un- 

 weariable, that when he had swum 

 farthest he would immediately plunge 

 again, nevertheless ; and then no wit 

 could divine where in the deep pond 

 he might be speeding his way like a 

 fish, for he had time and ability to 

 visit the bottom of the pond in its 



deepest part. It is said Loons have 

 been caught in the New York lakes 

 eighty feet beneath the surface, with 

 hooks set for trout. I found that it 

 was as well for me to rest on my oars 

 and wait his reappearing ; for again 

 and again, when I was straining my 

 eyes over the surface one way, I would 

 be startled by his unearthly laugh 

 behind me. He was indeed a silly 

 Loon, I thought, for why, after dis- 

 playing so much cunning did he betray 

 himself the moment he came up by 

 that loud laugh? Did not his white 

 breast enough betray him? It was 

 surprising to see how serenely he 

 sailed ofi" with unruffied breast when 

 he came to the surface, doing all the 

 work with his webbed feet beneath. 

 His usual note was this demoniac 

 laughter, yet somewhat like that of a 

 water-fowl ; but occasionally when he 

 had balked me most successfully and 

 he came up a long way off, he uttered 

 a long-drawn, unearthly howl, prob- 

 ably more like that of a Wolf than any 

 bird. This was his looning, perhaps 

 the wildest sound that is ever heard 

 here, making the woods ring far and 

 wide. At length, having come up 

 fifty rods off, he uttered one of those 

 prolonged howls, as if calling on the 

 Gods of Loons to aid him, and imme- 

 diately there came a wind from the 

 east, rippled the surface, and filled the 

 whole air with misty rain. And so I 

 left him disappearing far away on the 

 tumultuous surface." 



60 



