48 GAME ALONG WOODED STREAMS. 



These belts of timber, wherever they occur, also 

 form the resort of game of every description which 

 the country affords; and, as the reader will find more 

 particularly described in the sections on hunting and 

 shooting, a stroll, up the wind, in the vicinity of these 

 lakes or streams, will frequently procure the chance 

 of getting shots at deer, or other animals. The waters 

 themselves are, besides, often found covered with dif- 

 ferent kinds of wild fowl, which probably more than 

 any other class of game afford palatable and useful 

 additions to the larder; generally easily got at, and 

 procurable in most places in numbers sufficient to 

 supply the wants of small parties of travellers. The 

 presence of these birds also indicates that of fish, and 

 in most of the lakes and streams the angler may 

 obtain good, and in many cases magnificent sport, as 

 a reference to our section on fishing will, we trust, 

 conclusively show. 



Now as regards the crossing of these streams, which 

 is of course a thing of almost every-day occurrence, 

 while travellers are on the march this is a matter 

 which requires to be specially considered: Each 

 different class of country is drained, as a rule, by its 

 peculiar type of stream. The best means of procedure 

 will therefore depend upon the character of the banks 

 and stream beds, which vary according to locality in 

 a variety of different ways too numerous to mention 

 here. We shall therefore only describe one or two of 

 the most remarkable types of such plains rivers. 



A very common type of prairie stream is one where 

 the current, upon ordinary occasions, flows in a com- 

 paratively narrow channel through a wide expanse of 

 sand and gravel, testifying to the mighty force with 



