THE GAME ESCAPES. 229 



only up midside to the animal. He watched us intently 

 for half an hour, tossing his head up and down, looking first 

 at one, then at another, as if calculating from which the 

 attack upon his life was to come. At last, as if overcome 

 by weariness, or concluding that after all there was no real 

 danger, he laid quietly down. In answer to his confidence 

 in the harmlessness of our intentions, we rowed away back 

 to the island where we started him. We had not reached it, 

 however, when we saw him enter the water, and swim to 

 the main land, and glad enough he seemed to be when he 

 had regained the protection of his native forests. 



We took our dogs from the island, and rowed to the 

 broad channel of the inlet which enters the lake on the left 

 hand side, as you look to the south. There are two of 

 these inlets, which enter within a quarter of a mile of each 

 other, each of which comes down from little lakes, or ponds, 

 deeper in the wilderness. The one we entered flows in a 

 tortuous course through a natural meadow, stretching away 

 on either hand forty or fifty rods, to a dense forest of 

 spruce, maple, and beech, above which gigantic pines stand 

 stately and tall in their pride. Three miles from the lake, 

 the hills approach each other, and the little river comes 

 plunging down through a gorge, over shelving rocks, and 

 around great boulders, as if mad with the obstructions piled 

 up in its way. 



As we approached these falls, Smith, who sat in the bow 

 of the boat, motioned to the boatman to lay upon his oars, 

 and pointed to an object partly concealed by some low 



