106 • ADVENTURES IN THE WILDEKNESS. 



of human life, hath given the trees a limit also, 

 which they may not pass ; and these are being 

 summoned, and so go down." 



We sat a moment in silence ; then, with a com- 

 mon impulse, without a word, arose, and, gathering 

 up our traps, made ready for a start. As we pushed 

 out into the lake, we saw that the clouds in the 

 west were blacker ; a flash of lightning ran along 

 their upj)er verge, and the mountain above us 

 caught up the heavy boom, and, as if enraged at 

 the intrusion on its silence, hurled it back angrily 

 toward the cloud. At the same instant the shrill, 

 mocking cry of a loon rose into the air, mingling 

 with the reverberations of the thunder, as light 

 treble notes break sharply through a heavy vol- 

 ume of bass. 



" There 's the confounded loon," exclaimed John, 

 " that frightened the deer from the shore last niglit. 

 If it was n't for that thunder-shower in the west, 

 we 'd teach her to keep her mouth shut before we 

 left the pond. I think you might start the 

 feathers off her back any way, tube or no tube." 



The last sentence needs explanation. Loons 

 are the shyest and most expert swimmers of all 

 waterfowl. Twenty rods is as near as you can get 

 to them. When under fire, they sink themselves 

 into the water so that nothing but the feathers 

 along their backs and heads are in sight, and so 

 quick are they that they dive at the flash, getting 



