OR, THE LAKE LANDS OF CANADA. 107 



September 24. — The rain is still falling. The young 

 man who was instructed by the captain to look after us 

 during his absence was in camp with our breakfast soon 

 after seven o'clock this morning. He came provided with 

 the necessary cooking utensils to serve it hot. Having 

 completed our breakfast, the photographer took up my Bal- 

 lard rifle and asked the young man to accompany him to 

 the lake. He had not been absent from the tent five min- 

 utes when I heard the report of the gun ; other shots fol- 

 lowed this ; seven had soon been fired. There was a lapse 

 of probably about three minutes after the last report was 

 heard when Mildenberger made his appearance before the 

 tent asking for a shot-gun, saymg at the same time, excitedly, 

 " / have jttst fired five shots at a partridge sitting on a tree, 

 and the young ma7t has fired tiuo ; the bird has not moved, 

 and I dont believe she knozvs that she is wanted!' It has 

 previously been mentioned that Mildenberger had served 

 in the artillery with the German army during the Franco- 

 Prussian war, but these shots failed to convince us that he 

 was skilled in the use of the rifle. In fact, other observa- 

 tions forced the conclusion that he had not, prior to this, 

 been accustomed to the use of even a shot-gun. He 

 proved, however, to be a very apt scholar in these matters, 

 and before he left the woods he was quite an expert in the 

 use of both the shot-eun and rifle. I saw him with the 

 shot-gun handsomely drop birds on the wing, while with the 

 rifle he could occasionally knock off a partridge's head with- 

 out injuring its body. At the particular time when he 

 required a shot-gun to compel the partridge to recognize 

 that she was wanted, the bird — it is thought — became im- 



