130 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



situated some beautiful retired sheets of water. These 

 spots had long possessed me with their attractiveness, 

 for game abounded in their vicinity ; the scenery was 

 beautiful, and, above all, you were entirely free from 

 man's intrusion. Could it be wondered, then, that sel- 

 dom a week passed that I did not find time to visit 

 them ? Summer had unconsciously glided into autumn, 

 the dark, dense covering of the trees had changed to all 

 the gaudy hues of the rainbow, and the enlarged ripples 

 on the water, and occasional sighings of the wind, pre- 

 dicted that at no distant period another shroud than 

 the green grasses would cover the surface of the earth. 

 On the day in question when I left my couch im- 

 mense numbers of wild fowl were seen migrating south- 

 ward evident signs that cold weather had made its 

 appearance north. So, hoping possibly to kill a swan, 

 or a scarce specimen of wild duck, I determined to 

 visit my lakes once more ere they were frozen up. 

 At noon, when I started to fulfil my purpose, large 

 flakes of snow were noiselessly descending, but not 

 in sufficient numbers to obliterate my trail. The 

 water reached, the first glance exposed a sight only 

 seen by those who reside beyond the verges of civi- 

 lisation, where the wild denizens of the air or in- 

 habitants of the land reign supreme. The surface of 

 the water was covered with ducks of every variety ; 



