330 EFFRONTERY OF A WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 



Got afloat at an early hour, the current of the 

 stream again commences to increase in velocity, while 

 the banks became more elevated and densely clothed 

 with timber. Twice were we compelled to leave the 

 river, and make portages to avoid rapids, so turbulent 

 and swift, at the same time pierced by numerous 

 rocks, that an attempt to shoot them would entail 

 certain destruction. 



On one fine pool, fanned by a thousand dancing 

 graceful branches, my companion knocked over a 

 mallard. As it lay struggling on the surface, a 

 large white-headed eagle swooped from his perch, 

 the summit of a lofty solitary pine, and appropriated 

 the prize, which, with the coolest effrontery, he 

 carried to his roosting-place, and commenced to 

 feed upon. 



' It 's easy seeing we are again near white men, 

 such a piece of cheek could only be learned from 

 them/ said the f old man ;' continuing afterwards to 

 mutter to himself, ' We'll soon see plenty of such 

 work, when we get back to the settlements, ay, 

 that we will, that we will ' 



Our journey for the day, although scarcely more 

 than ten miles, had been very fatiguing, so we 

 halted early. The place we selected had but a day 

 or two since been used by others for the same 

 purpose ; the most prominent among numerous 

 evidences that such was the case being a smoulder- 

 ing stump. 



Who knows the Tay at Dunkeld ? Eemove from 



