re in the deep pond, beneath the smooth surface, he might be
speeding his way like a fish, for he had time and ability to visit the
bottom of the pond in its deepest part. It is said that loons have
been caught in the New York lakes eighty feet beneath the surface,
with hooks set for trout,--though Walden is deeper than that. How
surprised must the fishes be to see this ungainly visitor from another
sphere speeding his way amid their schools!

Yet he appeared to know his course as surely under water as on the
surface, and swam much faster there. Once or twice I saw a ripple
where he approached the surface, just put his head out to reconnoitre,
and instantly dived again. I found that it was as well for me to rest
on my oars and wait his reappearing as to endeavor to calculate where
he would rise; for again and again, when I was straining my eyes over
the surface one way, I would suddenly be startled by his unearthly
laugh behind me. But why, after displaying so much cunning, did he
invariably betray himself the moment he came up by that loud laugh?
Did not his white breast enough betray him?

He was indeed a silly loon, I thought. I could commonly hear the plash
of the water when he came up, and so also detected him. But after an
hour he seemed as fresh as ever, dived as willingly and swam yet
farther than at first. It was surprising to see how serenely he sailed
off with unruffled breast when he came to the surface, doing all the
work with his webbed feet beneath. His usual note was this demoniac
laughter, yet somewhat like that of a waterfowl; but occasionally when
he had balked me most successfully and come up a long way off, he
uttered a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably more like that of a wolf
than any bird; as when a beast puts his muzzle to the ground and
deliberately howls. This was his looning,--perhaps the wildest sound
that is ever heard here, making the woods ring far and wide. I
concluded that he laughed in derision of my efforts, confident of his
own resources.

Though the sky was by this time overcast, the pond was so smooth that
I could see where he broke the surface when I did not hear him. His
white breast, the stillness of the air, and the smoothness of the
water were all against him. At length, having come up fifty rods off,
he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as if calling on the god of
loons to aid him, and immediately there came a wind from the east and
rippled the surface, and filled th