A CLOSE CALL 133 



Well, we started, and, although it rained buckets of 

 water, I rather enjoyed the experience. We found 

 many fresh tracks of big game, the windfalls were 

 few, and as the path was deeply carpeted with fresh- 

 fallen leaves the walk was anything but tedious. 



On leaving the forest the road led through a piece 

 of burnt land. I heard a cow-bell jingling and soon 

 spied some cattle feeding off to the right, and, straight 

 in front of me, were two deer. But they had scented 

 me, and as they threw their heels up and bounded 

 away, I tried a shot at the nearest one, but — ah, there's 

 that " but " again ! — I missed, and the deer, in a twin- 

 kling, were safe in the timber. 



We reached the lake and then had a long wait for 

 the canoes. On their arrival we found one of them 

 had shipped a good bit of water, and that they all had 

 had a narrow call from capsizing. The wind was in- 

 creasing every minute, and as it was necessary for us 

 to cross the lake (here about a mile and a half wide), 

 we put the baggage into one canoe, and, with our 

 strongest guide to handle the stern paddle and me at 

 the bow paddle, while my son squatted down in the 

 centre of the canoe, we pushed out into the turbulent 

 waters. The wind was blowing a gale straight down 

 the lake, and strong enough to pick the water from the 

 tops of the white caps and blow it around us in the 

 shape of fine spray. Our course lay diagonally across 

 or up the lake in the teeth of the gale, and hardly had 



