476 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



thereof was mine for the winning — ^mine to be struggled 

 for manfully with my brother — ^mine to be pouched, carried 

 off and eaten, if my right hand retained its cunning ! Even 

 my placid friend, Piscator, felt within him the movings of a 

 mild exultation, as he stretched forth his hands above it in 

 calm blessing, and peacefully smiled ! 



Here and there the white mist-clouds lay along the hiU- 

 sidfts above them — seeming to form high up against the 

 purpled green the serial double of the lakes — and there,' no 

 doubt, the swift-winged swallows — ^though we couldn't see 

 them — dived through the fleecy waves like brook-trout, and 

 the fish-hawk swooped like the ravenous salmon — if they 

 didn't at them below ! 



Of this we had much more palpable evidence, for we saw 

 many of them rise, beating their wings with exultilig screams 

 as they went circling up and up, bearing a ithree to a five 

 pounder in their talons. Fat pickings for fish-hawks, any 

 how, in these thirty odd lakes ! How I envied the rascals, 

 and wished to hear the war-cry of a bald eagle, and see 

 him come down from the clouds above, hurled swiftly, like 

 the bolt he once bore, upon resistless wings, to strike the 

 gluttons and make them drop their struggling prey, and 

 then to see the conquering robber pause and dive with a 

 roar of plumes down the still air and snatch the glistening 

 spoil before it reached the wave again. 



These are the quick, fierce battles of the air-kings that 

 we sometimes see from such a perch ! 



But let us count our riches over, and name their names 

 and places that we may know them. 



Sheer down from our pinnacle on the northern side lies 

 Lake Pleasant — a great white opal, with an emerald in the 

 centre. This is 



The captain jewel of the oarcanet," 



and old earth wears it proudly for its beauty, and its name 



