IN THE FAR irxsr. 305 



approaching me, and a few moments later I was amidst five 

 of my companions who were out searching for me. I learned 

 from them that I had been travelling in a cirele, and that 

 instead of crossing four or five chasms and two streams as I 

 supposed, I had only crossed one, my movements having led 

 me to the same chasm and stream every time. 



This chasm had taken up the shouts and the blasts of the 

 horns, and echoed them in so many directions that I was de- 

 ceived, and led hither and thither, and forced into a veritable 

 Will o' the Wisp chase for which there was no necessity. The 

 sharp detonations of the shot-gun not being so well adapted to 

 produce an echo as the other sounds, I was enabled to hear them 

 distinctly in the direction from which they issued ; and were it 

 not for these I would undoubtedly have been compelled to sleep 

 that night without shelter in the damp forest. I have slept 

 there alone since then, but under different circumstances, and 

 after experience had taught me what to do; hence I felt no 

 alarm about my safety. 



When we reached camp I was hailed as the prodigal, and 

 many a witty joke was cracked at my expense as a woodsman ; 

 but the persijiac/e was atoned for by a thoughtful, considerate 

 kindness that would have done credit to tender-hearted women. 



We spent a fortnight in the woods in the most pleasant 

 manner possible, and were almost sorry to leave our wild, free 

 life for the labour and conventionalism of civilization. All 

 our days were not devoted to hunting the lordly stag, however, 

 for we made excursions to interesting scenes in our neighbour- 

 hood, explored lakes not even known to local geographers, and 

 spent many a pleasant hour angling for the delicious trout of 

 the streams and tarns, and in shooting wild fowl, or searching 

 for grouse among their leafy coverts. 



When we turned our faces homewards we had three waggon- 

 loads of venison, a bear, two otters and three beavers, the two 

 latter species of animals having been shot during moonlight 

 nights while they were out enjoying themselves. The 

 abundance of trout in these streams and lakes is something 

 wonderful, it being nothing unusual for one rod to capture a 

 hundred pounds in weight in a day. Winged game was so 



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