258 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



of the question while the incessant attacks of the 

 mosquitoes made me restless and irritable. No sick 

 man or storm-tossed mariner ever more ardently 

 longed for break of day. The night appeared end- 

 less, and doubts of whether the sun had not been 

 delayed in his course, or taken his departure to 

 gladden with his rays the inhabitants of other planets, 

 intruded themselves. At last, faint lines of light 

 glimmered in the east, foretelling the departure of dark- 

 ness, and with greater satisfaction than I ever pre- 

 viously experienced, I rose from my wet and uncom- 

 fortable resting-place. To seek my lost route was my 

 first endeavour, and for more than an hour I wan- 

 dered without success. At last, when almost yielding 

 to despair, I struck the margin of the lake I had been 

 shooting on the evening before ; and what a beautiful, 

 enthralling scene lay before me ! The placid water 

 only rippled where the wild duck sported, or the 

 voracious fish pursued to the surface their destined 

 prey ; while the shadow of each tree that grew near the 

 margin was so distinctly reflected that the minutest 

 limb or twig could be traced with perfect precision. 



I stood entranced, and so great was my admiration, 

 that nothing could have induced me to disturb the 

 harmony of the picture by destroying the life, or 

 disturbing the retreat, of the beautiful creatures which 

 formed its prominent features. To the left were 

 several deer and fawns, knee-deep, feeding upon the 

 tender, succulent leaves of ' the water-lily, the 

 youngsters occasionally chasing one another in sport, 

 and unknowingly practising and developing those 

 muscles which Nature intends to be their protection 

 in the hour of danger; their beautiful, graceful 



