A Sportsman 97 



to arrive in such good season, where Providence seemed 

 to have been so entirely with us. 



With blazing birchwood fires, and dinner soon fol- 

 lowing, we were jubilant with hopes of the morrow and 

 following days. 



The lake was open north ahead of us, and at a good 

 hour in the morning we were pulling our boats over it 

 four miles to the head, where we landed, and followed 

 a trail for a mile to a pond of a mile and a half in length, 

 an adjunctive log camp I had there in the woods by 

 the shore. Here we remained over night, still farther 

 advanced in the wilderness of trees, our aim for the 

 moment being to get away as far as possible from the 

 busy haunts of men. After lunch we sallied out in 

 various directions, trusting to fall in with some strag- 

 gling members of the Cervus family, and did, but failed 

 to score, and found a comfortable night's rest in our 

 sheltered home. 



The gale had subsided, and the night was tolerably 

 cold, at zero, still, and the morning clear. We were off 

 after a light breakfast before the sun smiled upon us, 

 and before ten o'clock had a fat doe to our credit. 

 After lunch we returned to the lake for home camp. 



We speedily saw, as we expected, that passage over 

 the lake was impossible for walking or boating, as it was 

 entirely frozen over, and of too delicate cast for bear- 

 ing, and too solid for breaking passage for our boats. 

 So we hauled the boats higher on the shore, with bot- 

 toms up and oars beneath, and deserted them with 

 affectionate regards. The fun was deepening with rip- 

 ples of crimson and gold, and although our tramp 

 through the pathless woods was up and down hill, and 

 across some tangled swamps and windfalls, and to the 



