Wild Swan Shooting. 37 



or swim, and this not without peril of broken limbs o 

 drowning. 



" But when the lake burst on our view there were the 

 swans by hundreds, and white as rich cream, either dip- 

 ping their black bills in the water, or stretching out one 

 leg on its surface, or gently floating along. According 

 to the Indian mode of hunting, we had divided, and 

 approached the lagoon from different sides. The mo- 

 ment our vedette was seen, it seemed as if thousands of 

 large, fat, and heavy swans were startled, and as they 

 made away from him they drew towards the ambush of 

 death ; for the trees had hunters behind them, whose 

 touch of the trigger would carry destruction among 

 them. As the first party fired, the game rose and flew 

 within easy distance of the party on the opposite side, 

 when they again fi^ed, and I saw the water covered with 

 birds floating with their backs downwards, and their 

 heads sunk in the water, and their legs kicking in the 

 air. When the sport was over we counted more than 

 fifty of these beautiful birds, whose skins were intended 

 for the ladies in Europe. There were plenty of geese 

 and ducks, but no one condescended to give them a shot. 

 A conch was sounded, and after a while the squaws came 

 dragging the canoe, and collecting the dead game, which 

 was taken to the river's edge, fastened to the canoe, and 

 before dusk we were again landed at our camping ground. 

 I had heard of sportsmen in England who walked a whole 

 day, and after firing a pound of powder returned in great 

 glee, bringing one partridge ; and I could not help won- 

 dering what they would think of the spoil we were bear- 

 ing from Swan Lake. 



" The fires were soon lighted, and a soup of pecan 

 nuts and bear fat made and eaten. The hunters stretched 

 themselves with their feet close to the camp-fires, intended 

 to burn all night. The squaws then began to skin the 



