210 A WATER-SCENE AT NIGHT. 



gigantic oaks, and luxuriant walnuts, was admirably 

 placed for an amateur of the chase. Wood on the right ; 

 cultivated fields on the left ; meadows surrounded by 

 trunks of trees set like chevaux de frise, for the purpose 

 of preventing the game from devastating the plantations of 

 maize, potatoes, batatas, barley, and wheat ; a bright shining 

 lake in front of the house, a lake twelve miles long and 

 three miles broad, whose banks were covered with reeds, 

 and frequented by herons, bustards, grebes, water-hens, 

 geese, and ducks of every species including the famous 

 canvas-back, the king of the palmipeds of North America. 

 Everything combined to make Crow's Nest one of the 

 most magnificent of " hunting-boxes." 



A boat awaited us in the creek, at about a gunshot 

 from the farm. David stood in the bow, boat-hook in 

 hand, keeping it close in to the bank until Mr. Eustace 

 and I had embarked. 



No sooner were we seated in the stern than Mr. Eustace 

 took the rudder, and gave the signal of departure. David, 

 disengaging the boat from the water-lilies and reeds which 

 flourished on the bank, soon pushed out into the middle, 

 and rowed us hastily in a northerly direction. 



It was, as I said at the beginning of this episode, a 

 beautiful night; the sun shone on the horizon, water- 

 birds fluttered around us, and before we reached the 

 Irishman's hut Mr. Eustace and I had killed a score, 

 which a capitally trained spaniel, my friend's faithful 

 companion, hastened in search of without waiting for the 

 word of command, and diving, if need were, when any 

 wounded bird thought by this means to escape his obsti- 

 nate pursuit. And, with but one or two exceptions, the 

 quadruped always carried off the palmiped. 



