344 THE ADIRONDACK. 



companion. As we were gliding noiselessly down the 

 stream, suddenly from the dark and overhanging shores 

 there burst a sharp " Heck I heck ! heck !" sounding for 

 all the world like an explosion of scornful, derisive 

 laughter. Breaking in so abruptly upon the deep 

 silence, and issuing from the impenetrable gloom of 

 the forest, it startled me for the moment as much as 

 if it had been the scream of a panther. The next 

 moment, however, this strange challenger revealed who 

 he was, for a long ringing " Hoo-oo-hoo-oo," echoed 



p 



through the woods. It was not the ordinary hoot of 

 the owl, but* rose and fell like the howl of a dog when 

 baying the moon. It seemed to be scornfully asking 

 " Who ?" with a prolonged accent on the upper note. 

 His gravity was evidently upset by the ball of fire 

 moving noiselessly over the water, and he would silently 

 flit from tree to tree to keep opposite us, uttering each 

 time, almost under our very noses, that prolonged and 

 sneering " who-oo" As we turned into the " slue," this 

 queer river sentinel lapsed into silence. Not a word 

 was now uttered by either of us ; not a sound broke the 

 silence, save when the boat grazed a lily-pad that lay in 

 its path, or a frog, disturbed from his resting-place, 

 plunged with a sharp " gullook" into the water. Now 



