POKE RECEIVES A CHE'oSITY AND TELLS A YARN. 349 



darkness, and the hunter, thus sitting in obscurity, is en. 

 abled to see anything in range of his light with perfect 

 distinctness. So we began to descend the stream. Our 

 voices, subdued to a whisper, were presently hushed alto- 

 gether. Not a sound disturbed the perfect stillness; no 

 splash of the paddle in the dexterous hand of the guide ; 

 no noise of motion; we floated on the water as the moon 

 floats when " with white fire ladened " she sails out into 

 the still night. The weird trees, naked of leaves and 

 shirted in moss, flashed out in light, and then fell back 

 in darkness, save when their tops marked the sky beyond. 

 Bush and flower, reeds pendent with their heavy seed, 

 and lancifoliate lilies, with their deep blue plumes, lateral 

 lagoons, gemmed with water-plants and bordered with 

 their larches, came out into the light, dropped into the 

 darkness, and were succeeded by others in clumps and 

 clusters, and festooned by blackberry vines. Ghostly- 

 looking sights, stumps that had supernatural shapes, and 

 tombstone trunks, blanched white by rain, marked the 

 banks. 



Kee-honk ! kee-honk ! screams a blue heron in harsh, 

 aspirated afecents, as he springs into the air, fanning the 

 night with his great wings in measured beats that can 

 be heard long after he is beyond sight. The muskrats 

 come out in the circle of light before the boat, in won- 

 derment at the pale fire that awakens them, and dive 

 beneath the waters when the boat is on them. The boat 

 swings around in the turning of the stream, and I see the 

 erect head and large cars of a deer. It is a doe, foi 



