A DISAGREEABLE SWIM. 359 



when, lamentable to relate, all the poor creatures found 

 a watery grave ! 



In two other instances, Avhen in pursuit of wild fowl 

 in the great lake Wenern, our boat, from being insuffi- 

 ciently secured, drifted away from rocky islets where we had 

 landed without any persou on board ; but both happened 

 in the daytime, and the mishaps having been timely 

 observed, I was enabled, by swimming, to recover the 

 craft. In the first instance the distance was very trivial, 

 but in the second considerable, and the risk something, 

 for had I not succeeded in reaching her, which was 

 problematical, as the wind was carrying her fast from the 

 land, my fate would liave been sealed. 



Provided the weather be tine, and the stores landed, 

 no great harm could possibly be done were your boat 

 thus to drift away altogether, for sooner or later you 

 Avould be pretty sure to be picked up by a fisherman 

 or vessel ; but if, on the contrary, the weather were 

 tempestuous and inclement, and all the provisions and 

 extra clothing on board, it would be, to say the least, 

 exceedingly unpleasant, and might not improbably lead 

 to most serious consequences. Bearing all this in mind, 

 we were afterwards doubly careful, before retiring to rest, 

 to see well after our " ground tackle." 



On another occasion — and this was also in the Wenern, 

 where the seas, from being shorter, are even more dan- 

 gerous than in the ocean itself — our little craft was in 

 considerable jeopardy. We had moored her at eventide 

 to the northern or lee side of a rocky islet, but had hardly 

 lain down to rest when the wind suddenly veered to the 

 opposite point of the compass, and blew with great 

 violence. The water thereabouts was shallow, and 

 studded with sunken rocks, so that it was next to impos- 

 sible in the darkness to remove the boat elsewhere, and 

 she, as a consequence, Avas fully exposed to the fury of the 



