496 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
the grass like a great snake out of its lair of night, with 
here and there the golden morning glistening on its scales. 
It was a strange, lonely scene, and a dream-like hush was 
over it, so that we could hear our hearts beat above the soft 
lapsing of the deeply winnowed oars. It seemed so wild, and 
was so still here, that no other sounds should intrude but the 
splash of the plunging bull-frog, the rustling ripple of the 
wading deer among the flags, and the musically shrill metallic 
warble of the black-winged scarlet tanager, from out the deep 
shadows of the hill-side forest of old pines and hemlock. 
Now is the time when the deer begin to come down from the 
hills to feed upon the tender ‘grasses and water plants that 
grow in the bed and along the edges of the stream; and we 
may expect any moment, when we make the short turns, 
which, although the stream is deep, are often hardly long 
enough for the boat to lie m, or wide enough for the oars, 
to see a tawny head uplifted in the startle, and reaching out 
from the long grass over the channel to gaze at our coming 
with pricked ears. 
Piscator and I drew lots for the first shot at starting, and 
I won, so that I had the forward seat, and with rifle at 
“present,” I sat in statue-like and breathless expectation as 
we made each turn, and came upon a new and always wilder 
and more lovely picture of green islets, deep receding coves, 
where the trout leaped like quick gleams of moonlight over 
the white lilies—or small meadows waving to and fro, in live 
contrast with the gray and solemn-looking boulders of granite 
which are piled up behind them, with the matted and snake- 
like roots of the ancient pines above, twisted and twined 
along their edges. I was so lulled and enchanted by the 
constantly varying beauty and the presiding repose of these 
scenes, that, with all the eager instincts of the sportsman 
rampant in my veins, I could not help hoping, at moments, 
that no deer would make its appearance, and thus compel 
me to mar this harmonious calm. Nor did it happen so, for, 
