114 THE COCKNEY SPORTSMEN. 



those who rend her will, after having exhausted the 

 physical resources of the country, turn upon and rend 

 each other. 



Sunk in their reverie, the hunters allowed themselves 

 to drift with the current ; and on rounding an islet in 

 mid stream, they observed, when too late, that they had 

 been perceived by some large animal, of which they had 

 a transient glimpse as it bounded out of sight among 

 the trees on the bank. 



"Wagh!" cried Jake; "this conies o' dozin', instead 

 o' keepin' one's eyes skinned. 'Twur mighty like a 

 cariboo buck ; an' we'd have got the critter, sartin, if 

 we'd been a leetle on the look-out." 



" Well, it's not much matter," said Pierre ; " we have 

 plenty of meat for the present, and it would have been 

 a pity to shoot the noble* beast merely for its hide." 



" I say with you, hoss," replied Jake. " I ain't one o' 

 them fellurs as ur allers lettin' off thur rifles an' killin 

 off the game. They shud 'a been butchers that's a 

 fact. Thur not hunters, leastways what this coon 

 means by hunters. I went out in the Rockies a few 

 years agone wi' two Britishers from London, or some 

 sich place. Wai, the way them two got on wur a cau- 

 tion to see. I guess they never before seed game of 

 any kind, to jedge from the way they walked into the 

 bufflers. Ten a- day wouldn't do 'em, nor yet twenty. 

 They left tons an' tons o' prime meat a-rottin' on the 

 prairie, only takin' the tongues. Wagh ! it a'most 

 makes me sick to think o' thur doin's !" 



