Cloud Wings the Eagle. 9 1 



That was nearly eighty miles by canoe from where 

 we now stood, though scarcely ten in a straight line 

 over the mountains; for the rivers and lakes we were 

 following doubled back almost to the starting point ; 

 and the whole wild, splendid country was the eagle's 

 hunting ground. Wherever I went I saw him, fol- 

 lowing the rivers for stranded trout and salmon, or 

 floating high in air where he could overlook two or 

 three wilderness lakes, with as many honest fish- 

 hawks catching their dinners. I had promised the 

 curator of a museum that I would get him an eagle 

 that summer, and so took to hunting the great bird 

 diligently. But hunting was of little use, except to 

 teach me many of his ways and habits ; for he seemed 

 to have eyes and ears all over him; and whether I 

 crept like a snake through the woods, or floated like 

 a wild duck in my canoe over the water, he always 

 saw or heard me, and was off before I could get 

 within shooting distance. 



Then I tried to trap him. I placed two large trout, 

 with a steel trap between them, in a shallow spot on 

 the river that I could watch from my camp on a bluff, 

 half a mile below. Next day Gillie, who was more 

 eager than I, set up a shout ; and running out I saw 

 Old Whitehead standing in the shallows and flopping 

 about the trap. We jumped into a canoe and pushed 



