the throat of the
deer, and gazed upon its broad antlers, now in the velvet, pointing to
the course of the ball right through its vitals, in on one side and
out on the other. We had venison for the next four-and-twenty hours,
and we disturbed the deer no more that afternoon.

The deep baying of the stag-hounds, as we entered the little lake,
apprised us of the location of our tents, and we were glad to reach
them, and stretch our limbs upon the bed of boughs beneath them, for
the day had been warm, and our journey a weary one. Our pioneer had
made the entire journey the day before, though he had to pass over all
the carrying-places three times. We found that he had killed two deer,
and had the meat from them, cut into thin slips, undergoing the
process of "jerking," in a bark smokehouse erected near the tents. He
had also a beautiful string of trout ready for our supper, taken in a
way peculiarly his own. He had used neither bait nor fly.

After supper, as we sat looking out over the lake in front of our
tents, the Doctor inquired of our pioneer how he had taken his fish,
as he had with him neither rod nor flies, and there was no bait to be
found in the woods proper for trout.

"Why," said he, "I got lonesome yesterday, all alone up here in the
woods, waiting for you, and I thought I'd take a look around the shore
of the lake, thinking I might find a gold mine, or a pocketful of
diamonds, or something of that sort; so I took my rifle and the two
dogs, and started on an explorin' voyage. I didn't find any gold, but
I found, just across there by those willows and alders, a cold stream
entered the lake, and right in the mouth of it the trout were lyin' as
thick as your fingers. They were fine little fellows as I ever
happened to see, weighing about a quarter of a pound each. I had a
hook or two, and a piece of twine in my pocket, but they were of no
sort of use in common fishin', for I had no kind of bait, and couldn't
get any. After thinking the matter over, I concluded I'd see if I
couldn't bag some of them in a quiet way. So I cut me a long pole,
tied the hook and line to the end of it, and reaching out over the
water, dropped quietly down among them. I let the line drift gently up
against the one I wanted. He didn't seem to mind it, but was rather
pleased as the line tickled his sides. After letting it lay there a
moment, I jerked suddenly, and up came the trout clean over my head on
to the flat rock behind me. How