80 HILLS AND LAKES. 



travelled for an hour, round the base of the hill, when 

 I came to the edge of a ravine, across which my way 

 lay. It was a deep gully worn down by a stream, 

 when the freshets swelled it into a torrent ; on each 

 side of it, at the place where I stood, were perpen- 

 dicular rocks from twenty to sixty feet high. This 

 made me alter my course, and go either above or be- 

 low, in order to cross over. As I stood leaning 

 against a great pine, I heard a growlin' and snarlin' 

 sort of a noise, and lookin' across the gulf, I saw on 

 the opposite side, two painters busy in devourin' the 

 carcass of a deer they had caught. It was, may be, 

 twenty rods in a straight line, from where I stood, to 

 the place where they were at work. Now painters 

 are like cats in their nater, and manner of feedin'. 

 They had each torn off a limb of the deer, and lay 

 stretched out on their bellies, eatin' and growlin', not 

 with anger as it seemed to me, but with satisfaction at 

 havin' a pleasant breakfast. I drew up by the side 

 of the old pine, and sighted carefully at the head of 

 one of the kritters.and pulled away. I made a good 

 shot that time, for the ball went right through his 

 brain. He made a convulsive spring, and rolled over, 

 and over, kickin' and tearin' the earth, till he tumbled 



