XXIX. 



A DEERLICK. THE VaaiaoNTBB AND HIS LICKLOO SHOOTING THE 

 WRONG ANIMAL. 



WE shot into the expanded mouth of a stream 

 that formed the main inlet to the lake. Here we 

 landed, and followed a path along the bank of a muddy 

 little rivulet, some quarter of a mile, till we came to a 

 little basin, scooped out by the hand of nature in the 

 side of the hill. In this basin we found the spring 

 from which the streamlet originated. Its waters had 

 an unpleasant, brackish, mineral taste, and the mire 

 out of which it oozed, was trodden as if a flock of 

 sheep had been passing through it. Little paths led 

 away from it in every direction into the forest. It 

 was what is termed in border parlance, a " deerlick." 

 Here the deer came in the night to lap its brackish 

 waters, and stamp round in the mud. It seemed to 

 be greatly frequented, as the paths and thousands of 



