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 bowlings 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 
