52 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OP FRANCE. 



'* sprainting " places frequent, but very stale ; so, 

 having drawn down the river as far as we could go 

 with daylight before us without finding, we were 

 about to return home, when the voice of a distant 

 horn reached us from the depths of the forest. I 

 thought that I heard a confused tune played afar off, 

 and deemed it some musician disporting himself 

 windily to the woods ; but my friends were much 

 occupied with it, and at last told me that it was a 

 hunter (who had heard my horn recalling a hound 

 w^ho had drawn away from the river) appealing to me 

 for aid, and telling me by his horn that his wolf was 

 beaten, his horse tired, and that, in that position he 

 could not kill his animal of chase ; and therefore, 

 hearing my horn, he called on his brother huntsman 

 to make in and assist him. While listening to this 

 sylvan summons, we occasionally heard the baying of 

 a hound ; but, as we were all on foot, we could in no 

 way make in, so the wolf escaped. 



While thus drawing the Nievre for an otter, I was 

 struck with its swift shallows and deep dark holes, 

 and eddying pools beneatli the alders, and, being 

 assured that there were pike and perch in the river, 

 I mentally resolved that on the first idle day I would 

 haunt the banks of the stream with a live minnow 

 for perch, and a good paternoster, such as is used 



