240 HILLS AND LAKES. 



the main land, is an island of one or two hundred 

 acres. Here we landed, and gave Shack a chase after 

 a noble buck, that seemed to have appropriated the 

 island to himself. The third heat round the island, 

 he took to the water, and, by our permission, escaped 

 to the main land. He had a mighty sharp run of 

 about twenty minutes, and he won't forget, in a hurry, 

 his adventures of that day. We dined here on broiled 

 partridge, having for our desert wild strawberries that 

 grew on the island around us. After our siesta, we 

 started for the Lower Saranac, intending to pass the 

 night on an island, a mile or two from the upper end 

 of it. 



" I mind a story old Pete Meigs told me," said 

 Tucker, as we floated down the lake, " of a thing he 

 saw once, over by the St. Eegis Lake, a great many 

 years ago, when he was out here alone in the woods. 

 I've told you before, he was an old man, almost, when 

 I was a boy, and he used to be away for weeks, and 

 may be for months, alone among the woods, and lakes, 

 and mountains of this wild region. He was a strange, 

 solitary man, and a gloomy one sometimes. There 

 was that in his history, that might well make him so, 

 as I'll tell you afore we get home. He had no wife, 



