TRUMPETER SWAN. 221 



and our valuables, for I then had a partner in trade, were all disembarked. 

 The party consisted of twelve or fourteen French Canadians, all of whom 

 were pretty good hunters; and as game was in those days extremely 

 abundant, the supply of deer, bear, racoons, and opossums, far exceeded our 

 demands. Wild Turkeys, Grouse, and Pigeons, might have been seen 

 hanging all around; and the ice-bound lakes afforded an ample supply of 

 excellent fish, which was procured by striking a strong blow with an axe on 

 the ice immediately above the confined animal, and afterwards extricating it 

 by cutting a hole with the same instrument. The great stream was itself so 

 firmly frozen that we were daily in the habit of crossing it from shore to 

 shore. No sooner did the gloom of night become discernible through the 

 grey twilight, than the loud-sounding notes of hundreds of Trumpeters would 

 burst on the ear; and as I gazed over the ice-bound river, flocks after flocks 

 would be seen coming from afar and in various directions, and alighting about 

 the middle of the stream opposite to our encampment. After pluming them- 

 selves awhile they would quietly drop their bodies on the ice, and through 

 the dim light I yet could observe the graceful curve of their necks, as they 

 gently turned them backwards, to allow their heads to repose upon the 

 softest and warmest of pillows. Just a dot of black as it were could be 

 observed on the snowy mass, and that dot was about half an inch of the base 

 of the upper mandible, thus exposed, as I think, to enable the bird to breathe 

 with ease. Not a single individual could I ever observe among them to act 

 as a sentinel, and I have since doubted whether their acute sense of hearing 

 was not sufficient to enable them to detect the approach of their enemies. 

 The day quite closed by darkness, no more could be seen until the next 

 dawn; but as often as the howlings of the numerous wolves that prowled 

 through the surrounding woods were heard, the clanging cries of the Swans 

 would fill the air. If the morning proved fair, the flocks would rise on their 

 feet, trim their plumage, and as they started with wings extended, as if 

 racing in rivalry, the pattering of their feet would come on the ear like the 

 noise of great muffled drums, accompanied by the loud and clear sounds of 

 their voice. On running fifty yards or so to windward, they would all be 

 on wing. If the weather was thick, drizzly, and cold, or if there were 

 indications of a fall of snow, they would remain on the ice, walking, standing, 

 or lying down, until symptoms of better weather became apparent, when 

 they would all start off. One morning of this latter kind, our men formed a 

 plot against the Swans, and having separated into two parties, one above, the 

 other below them on the ice, they walked slowly, on a signal being given 

 from the camp, toward the unsuspecting birds. Until the boatmen had 

 arrived within a hundred and fifty yards of them, the Swans remained as 

 they were, having become, as it would appear, acquainted with us, in 



