120 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



and being apparently well satisfied with its scrutiny, it 

 trotted away, much to my disappointment, for though I 

 wished it a "speedy taking off," it was not by running 

 off, but by leaving me its hide. While I was trudging 

 through the tangled shrubbery I heard shots quite fre- 

 quently to my right — I was on the extreme left — but I 

 did not fire once in the space of an hour, although 

 I knew very well that grouse were as abundant as they 

 could well be, and that deer were numerous enough to 

 satisfy the most insatiable hunter. I floundered along, 

 however, until I came to a small lake which was dammed 

 up in several places by the domiciles of beavers. Being 

 very anxious to capture one of these creatures, I watched 

 their dams for the space of fifteen or twenty minutes, 

 and finally caught a glimpse of two as they thrust their 

 noses above the water, quite close to the wall, and not 

 forty feet away from me. When they got their heads 

 close together I gave them both barrels in rapid succes- 

 sion, and killed them, as the shot penetrated to the 

 brain through the eyes. I then secured them before 

 they could sink out of sight. 



Slinging them on a pole, by tying their hind legs to- 

 gether, I started back for camp, in order to hand them 

 to the cook, so that he might give us roast beaver tail 

 for dinner. I arrived there in due time — though I feared 

 once or twice I had lost my way, as I crossed and re- 

 crossed my own tracks — and I had no sooner entered 

 than the chief of the pots began questioning me about 

 my movements in such a peculiar manner that I asked 

 him what ailed him, aiid intimated that the dignity of 

 his new duties had turned his head. 



'' Somebody has been fooling around the camp since 

 I've been here, and trying to scare me, and I thought 

 probably it was you," he said. 



" Did you see any person?" 



"I did once, behind that tree" — pointing to a huge 



