58 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



at the bottom. They appeared peculiarly unreasoning 

 animals, all diving down together instead of leaving 

 one of their number on the surface to keep watch. 

 Marking a tree near their position, I made a wide 

 circuit till I was opposite to the place where I judged 

 they were still feeding. Peeping cautiously, I ob- 

 served them in the same place, but evidently on the 

 qui vive, for the evening was remarkably still. As it 

 was particularly important to secure some animal 

 food, the last ryper being eaten, I disregarded the 

 agonising tortures caused by a swarm of mosquitoes 

 and remained perfectly still, till, recovering their 

 composure, they dived again, when by making rushes, 

 and stopping as though turned into stone when they 

 came to the surface, I arrived within convenient 

 shooting distance, and, getting their heads in a line, 

 discharged the right barrel of my gun and imme- 

 diately "sent on the left." The result of this 

 momentous " shot for the pot " was four fine wild 

 duck, while one flew across the lake untouched. Late 

 in the evening the inhabitants, consisting of two men 

 and a woman, returned, and, with unassumed non- 

 chalance, expressed not the smallest sign of any 

 astonishment at seeing a stranger, to them strangely 

 dressed, seated on their bed. 



I made known my wants in the best Swedish I 

 could muster, and next morning pushed on in a leaky 

 boat with the two men southwards and eastwards down 

 the Seddvajaure, a sound craft being quite exceptional, 

 as altogether I crossed thirty-nine lakes and shot 



