Megaleep the Wanderer. 5 



depths below. He touched the water; there was a 

 swirl, a splash — and the swallow was gone. The 

 trout had him. 



Then a cow caribou came out of the woods onto 

 the grassy point above me to drink. First she 

 wandered all over the point, making it look after- 

 wards as if a herd had passed. Then she took a sip 

 of water by a rock, crossed to my side of the point, 

 and took a sip there ; then to the end of the point, 

 and another sip ; then back to the first place. A nib- 

 ble of grass, and she waded far out from shore to sip 

 there ; then back, with a nod to a lily pad, and a sip 

 nearer the brook. Finally she meandered a long way 

 up the shore out of sight, and when I picked up the 

 paddle to go, she came back again. Truly a Wander- 

 geist of the woods, like the plover of the coast, who 

 never knows what he wants, nor why he circles about 

 so, nor where he is going next. 



If you follow the herds over the barcens and through 

 the forest in winter, you find the same wandering, 

 unsatisfied creature. And if you are a sportsman 

 and a keen hunter, with well established ways of 

 trailing and stalking, you will be driven to despera- 

 tion a score of times before you- get acquainted with 

 Megaleep. He travels enormous distances without 

 any known object. His trail is everywhere; he is 



