motes of tbe 



indirectly, that she had said there was a lurking 

 danger of atheism in the study of natural history, I 

 gave her no further thought, for such a creature 

 deserves consideration only from the missionaries. 

 If men or women of this sort abound, what are 

 our teachers about, for these unfortunates were 

 children once and went to school to be instructed. 

 I have never met with nature-hating people and 

 speak from hearsay only, but how to be pitied are 

 those who daily meet them ! I can scarcely im- 

 agine such phases of humanity distorted, if not 

 diseased but in comparison to those I do meet, 

 such creatures must be very like caged canaries, a 

 pitifully poor apology for our native song-birds. 



The most exciting effect seen on the river this 

 night was the wake left by some creature that held 

 its head well above the water. I thought at once 

 of snakes and the muskrat, and finally, to satisfy 

 myself, roused Pullen for a decision, and he sug- 

 gested an otter. This was so improbable that I 

 ventured the opinion it might be a mink. It was 

 beyond our vision's range before we had quit dis- 

 cussing the animal's identity, and while gazing 

 after it regretfully, I detected the creature heading 

 toward us. It was a thrilling moment. The black 

 dot came rapidly nearer, and the widening wake, 

 like diverging lines of silver chain, reached out un- 

 til lost in the outer darkness. I almost held my 

 breath as the unknown swimmer came within an 

 oar's length, and then Pullen and I, at the same 

 63 



