quitos were out in
myriads, and Umquenawis had taken a philosophical way of getting rid of
them. He was lying in the water, over a bed of mud, his body completely
submerged. As the swarm of flies that pestered him rose to his head he
would sink it slowly, drowning them off. Through my glass, as I drew
near, I could see a cloud of them hovering above the wavelets, or
covering the exposed antlers. After a few moments there would be a
bubbling grumble down in the mud, as Umquenawis blew the air from his
great lungs. His head would come up lazily to breathe among the popping
bubbles; the flies would settle upon him like a cloud, and he would
disappear again, blinking sleepily as he went down, with an air of
immense satisfaction.

It seemed too bad to disturb such comfort; but I wanted to know more
about the surly old tyrant that had treated me with such scant courtesy;
so I stole near him again, running up when his head disappeared, and
lying quiet whenever he came up to breathe. He saw me at last when I was
quite near, and leaped up with a terrible start. There was fear in his
eyes this time. Here was the man-fish again, the creature that lived on
land or water, and that could approach him so silently that the senses
in which he had always trusted gave him no warning. He stared hard for a
moment; then as the canoe glided rapidly straight towards him without
fear or hesitation he waded out, stopping every instant to turn, and
look, and try the wind, till he reached the fringe of woods beyond the
grasses. There he thrust his nose up ahead of him, laid his big antlers
back on his shoulders, and plowed straight through the tangle like a
great engine, the alders snapping and crashing merrily about him as he
went.

In striking contrast was the next meeting. I was out at midnight,
jacking, and passed close by a point where I had often seen the big
bull's tracks. He was not there, and I closed the jack and went on along
the shore, listening for any wood folk that might be abroad. When I came
back, a few minutes later, there was a suspicious ripple on the point. I
opened the jack, and there was Umquenawis, my big bull, standing out
huge and magnificent against the shadowy background, his eyes glowing
and flashing in fierce wonder at the sudden brightness. He had passed
along the shore within twenty yards of me, through dense underbrush,--as
I found out from his tracks next morning,--yet so silently did he push
his great bulk thro