ABALDEAGLE 271 



to swim to and from these islands. I remember, when 

 I was a boy, to have caught more than one black 

 squirrel, in the crooked lake, that had essayed to 

 swim across it. a distance of nearly or quite a mile ; 

 and I have seen many carcasses of those that had been 

 drowned in the effort, and drifted ashore. 



In a little bay at the north end of the lake, we 

 spent the night. This bay contains perhaps a hun- 

 dred acres, and from the beach you look away south, 

 through a narrow opening between the hills, till the 

 view is lost among the clustering islands of this beau- 

 tiful sheet of water. The morning was still and pleas- 

 ant, the air genial and bracing, as we started out from 

 the bay towards an island, some three or four miles 

 distant. The lake was placid and calm, and save 

 where the trout leaped from the water, or the wake of 

 our boat, that stretched in a long line of light behind 

 us, on which the morning sunbeams danced, no ripple 

 disturbed its surface. On a dry tree, that stood on 

 one of the points that stretched lakeward, forming the 

 little bay, sat a bald eagle. I hoped to get near 

 enough to bring him down with my rifle ; but his 

 keen eye was wide open, and before I got withiu 

 shooting distance, he leaped upward from his perch. 



