168 . TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT, 



into the water not twenty yards from where we were 

 standing. We pointed our guns at the bears; they 

 moved off towards the deer, who remained undis- 

 turbed at their approach ; and there they stood, bears 

 and deer, not five paces apart, but taking no more 

 notice of each other than if they had been animals 

 of the same species. More beasts now came flocking 

 to the river. Deer, wolves, foxes, horses all came 

 in crowds to seek shelter in one element from the 

 fury of another. Most of them, however, went 

 further up the creek, where it took a north-easterly 

 direction, and widened into a sort of lake. Those 

 that had first arrived began to follow the new-comers, 

 and we did the same. 



Suddenly the baying of hounds was heard. 

 " Hurrah ! there are dogs ; men must be near." A 

 volley from a dozen rifles was the answer to our 

 explanation. The shots were fired not two hundred 

 yards from us, yet we saw nothing of the persons 

 who fired them. The wild beasts around us trembled 

 and crouched before this new danger, but did not 

 attempt to move a step. We ourselves were stand- 

 ing in the midst of them up to our waists in water. 

 "Who goes there?" we shouted. Another volley, 

 and this time not one hundred yards off. We saw 

 the flashes of the pieces, and heard voices talking in 

 a dialect compounded of French and Indian. We 

 perceived that we had to do with Acadians. A 

 third volley, and the bullets whistled about our ears. 



