OR, THE LAKE LANDS OF CANADA. 



257 



doe made her appearance on the shore at the point which 

 I was then watchino^. She did not break cover at a single 

 bound, as is sometimes the case with the members of her 

 family, but trotted slowly into the water, and showed, at 

 this moment, no indications of fear or even anxiety. She 

 had entered the lake directly in front of our canoe, al- 

 though possibly about six hundred yards distant from us. 

 The course at first taken in the water was directly towards 

 us, and we were very careful to make no movement which 

 might attract her attention. She swam out into the lake 

 about eighty yards, apparently entirely uninfluenced by 

 any sense of fear or danger ; but now began to sniff the 

 air, move her ears and then turn her head in variousfdirec- 

 tions, evidently endeavoring to sight the object which she 

 had already scented. During this period she made very 

 slow progress in swimming, although still coming towards 

 us, but at a very slow rate of speed ; and finally, when 

 about one hundred yards from the shore, she turned up 

 the lake and continued to swim at about the same dis- 

 tance from the land. She had now headed directly towards 

 the captain's canoe, which was probably two thousand yards 

 distant from her. She still continued to turn her head 

 occasionally towards our canoe, — evidently expecting that 

 an enemy would assail her from that direction. Her ner- 

 vous movements were still expressive of anxiety. We 

 had hoped that she would leave the shore, and thus afford 

 us an opportunity to bring our canoe between her and the 

 land; but her movements were endrely unfavorable for the 

 accomplishment of this object. 



The captain had carefully watched her from the moment 



17 



