32 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



This is a feeling that can never come to the hotel guest, even in 

 the midst of ideal surroundings. 



"To her fair works did Nature link 

 The human soul that through us ran;" 

 we were a part of all we saw, and it thrilled us with delight, the 

 dawning knowledge that even the wild creatures themselves had 

 admitted us into the goodly fellowship of wood folk. 



The loons that had their home on the narrow reach of water 

 beyond our bay would come floating in to feed within a boat's 

 length of the shore; the big mink that lived among the driftwood 

 took up his daily fishing post on the butt of the floating pine log. 

 Even a pair of beaver, time and again at sundown, swam over 

 from the little cove on the opposite shore to enjoy their evening 

 repast among our lily pads. The very deer resumed their wonted 

 paths, moving right by our tent; often in the night or at dawn 

 we would hear their footfall as they passed down to drink their 

 fill at the bay : occasionally one would snuff uneasily as it caught 

 the tainted air. Even in broad daylight they would come brows- 

 ing to the edge of the clearing, and once, on emerging from our 

 tent, we saw a few paces away, just back of an old moss grown 

 log two does and a fawn quietly cropping the leaves from a little 

 clump of hazel. 



It was a great delight to stand perfectly still and watch the 

 deer; they would often look full at you in a prolonged stare and 

 then ttim to feed again, from time to time raising the head or 

 turning it somewhat sharply to see that you weren't trying to 

 take advantage of them. You might even speak to a companion, 

 and if you used level tones and didn't raise the voice excitedly, 

 they showed no alarm. It would almost seem as if the sense 

 impressions of eye and ear allowed the creatures to think for 

 themselves in independent judgment; but once they scent you, 

 reason goes overboard, and they stamp and blow in blind panic; 

 like Falstaff, they become cowards on instinct. Their sense of 

 smell is an age-long heritage that has both preserved the race and 

 made it what it is; years, even generations, of protection in a 

 forest sanctuary will not appreciably modify this guiding principle 

 of the animal's life. 



Our second season revealed a fresh charm; it taught us the 

 delight of greeting old friends, in flower and insect, bird and 



