264 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



knee-deep, feeding upon the tender, succulent leaves of the 

 water-lily, the youngsters occasionally chasing one another 

 in sport, and unknowingly practicing and developing those 

 muscles which Nature intends to be their protection in the 

 hour of danger ; their beautiful, graceful mothers frequent- 

 ly raising their eyes from their morning repast with ma- 

 ternal solicitude for their progenies' safety. What sports- 

 man could witness such a scene without feelings of the 

 greatest pleasure ? and, in my opinion, unless hunger could 

 be pleaded, he would be unworthy of the name who could 

 desecrate the hallowedness and peacefulness of the view by 

 wantonly shedding blood. Long I gazed with feelings of 

 rapture, congratulating myself in having at last discovered 

 a hunter's elysium. Uncertainty in reference to my posi- 

 tion had vanished, as without trouble, by following the 

 margin of the water, I could find my back track. At last 

 hunger told me it was time to think of home and breakfast. 

 An hour after found me in my bedroom undergoing the 

 luxury of a good wash, preparatory to an ample meal. My 

 friend, who was rejoiced to see me x having dreaded the in- 

 convenience of hunting me up, listened with great pleasure 

 to my glowing, and perhaps, unintentionally exaggerated 

 description of all I had seen and endured. On one point, 

 however, we were resolved an immediate visit to the 

 beautiful locality I had so lately left. Before a month had 

 elapsed many visits had been paid, and heavy game-bags, 

 or still heavier fish-baskets, were the result. Game is still 

 abundant near the region where my night adventure took 

 place, but like every locality, the hunter will have to pro- 

 ofed a little farther beyond the bounds of civilization; for 

 as certain as the red man vanishes before the stream of 

 emigration, or the morning mists before the gladdening 

 rays of the rising sun, game flies from the sound of the 

 squatter's axe, or the sharp report of the deadly rifle. 



