526 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



staggered off a few paces and fell dead upon the snow with 

 all its entrails let out. The man got home with great diffi- 

 culty and was laid up for some time after with his hurts. 

 This was a lesson he never forgot, and always took a gun 

 with him afterwards when he went into the woods on a crust. 



Piscator and I having determined on a trip to the famous 

 Whittaker Lake, we set off on a fine morning before sunrise, 

 and on foot, accompanied by two guides and as many dogs, 

 well trained to this lake hunting. The morning proved to 

 be especially warm, and one of the guides most expressively 

 characterized it, as we passed up the southern side of a long 

 hill 



"I swow! but it's a yaller day!" was gasped out by the 

 fellow. 



I laughed heartily, and thought that might " pass." The 

 little oxen performed miracles in dragging the sled with our 

 boat on it through the inconceivably rugged and tangled 

 woods, to the lake. The two guides went ahead to open 

 the way. We reached the margin between twelve and one. 

 When I reached the gap of the forest, which gave us an 

 outlook over the lake for I was some little distance ahead 

 imagine my astonishment at seeing four or five deer 

 leisurely feeding on the edge of the w^ater, on the opposite 

 shore. My first hasty impulse was to fire my rifle at them, 

 they seemed so close ; but then I remembered, and was at 

 the same time reminded by the guide who followed, that 

 the lake was nearly half a mile wide. The deer had not 

 observed or heard us, since we had approached as quietly 

 as possible. 



I stood and watched for some time the graceful and 

 unconscious creatures leisurely cropping the lily leaves and 

 buds that lay upon the surface of the calm lake. What a 

 shame it seemed that we had thus come to disturb and rouse, 

 with a bloody reveille, this happy quiet. They seemed, in 

 their hill-girt home, to be utterly ignorant of man's harshness 



