es. This fancy was dissipated as I drew near.
The outlines of the bills, like the blade of a sabre, convinced me they
were the ibis; besides, I now saw that they were less than three feet in
height, while the flamingoes stand five. There were a dozen of them in
all. These were balancing themselves, as is their usual habit, on one
leg, apparently asleep, or _buried in deep thought_. They were on the
upper extremity of the islet, while I was approaching it from below. It
was not above sixty yards across; and could I only reach the point
nearest me, I knew my gun would throw shot to kill at that distance. I
feared the stroke of the sculls would start them, and I pulled slowly
and cautiously. Perhaps the great heat--for it was as hot a day as I
can remember--had rendered them torpid or lazy. Whether or not, they
sat still until the cut-water of my skiff touched the bank of the islet.
I drew my gun up cautiously, took aim, and fired both barrels almost
simultaneously. When the smoke cleared out of my eyes, I saw that all
the birds had flown off except one, that lay stretched out by the edge
of the water.

"Gun in hand, I leaped out of the boat, and ran across the islet to bag
my game. This occupied but a few minutes; and I was turning to go back
to the skiff, when, to my consternation, I saw it out upon the lake, and
rapidly floating downward!

"In my haste I had left it unfastened, and the bayou current had carried
it off. It was still but a hundred yards distant, but it might as well
have been a hundred miles, for at that time I could not swim a stroke.

"My first impulse was to rush down to the lake, and after the boat.
This impulse was checked on arriving at the water's edge, which I saw at
a glance was fathoms in depth. Quick reflection told me that the boat
was gone--irrecoverably gone!

"I did not at first comprehend the full peril of my situation; nor will
you, gentlemen. I was on an islet, in a lake, only half a mile from its
shores--alone, it is true, and without a boat; but what of that? Many a
man had been so before, with not an idea of danger.

"These were first thoughts, natural enough; but they rapidly gave place
to others of a far different character. When I gazed after my boat, now
beyond recovery--when I looked around, and saw that the lake lay in the
middle of an interminable swamp, the shores of which, even could I have
reached them, did not seem to promise me footing--when I reflected