AMERICAN HUNTERS. 335 



flocks of fowl, I crept on till I came to another hiding-place 

 commanding a little bay. About the centre of the side of 

 the lake, then, I sat down, close to the water, well screened 

 by the huge limbs of a fallen tree, overgrown with creep 

 ers, and by my watch it was past noon. A more still and 

 sunny prospect the glittering though stagnant water 

 fringed on both sides of its entire length, as previously 

 described, by the autumn-tinted woods, and reflecting 

 their varied hues could never be viewed ; while the music 

 in the air made by the flocks of fowl calling to each other, 

 or inviting their fellows to a descent to the bosom of the 

 lake, was beautiful to the sportsman's ear. 



Above me, at the opposite end of the lake to the one 

 whence I came, the water seemed to be spanned by an 

 embankment, which I afterwards heard was for a line of 

 rail, and beyond this a fusilade of guns, as of a lot of 

 skirmishers on a field of battle, had now become con 

 tinuous; " hunters," as they call themselves, no doubt, 

 blazing away at the fowl I had driven in that direction. 

 Tom, too, by the report of his gun, I knew to be obey 

 ing my orders on the opposite shore, so I felt sure that 

 between the one disturbance and the other if I kept con 

 cealed I must obtain some passing shots, so with one gun 

 in my hand with loose shot, and the other lying by my 

 side with the blue cartridge for long distances on the 

 water (I would never use the green cartridge for any 

 thing but wolf or deer), and Brutus full of vigilance, but 

 couched behind me, I awaited such shots as might come 

 within the range of either charge. Very prettily, both 

 on the water and in the air, was the sport accorded, the 

 game varied by common duck, wood-duck, and the blue 

 and common teal the wild geese had taken their de 

 parture on the first alarm. While waiting thus, in the 



