tents while we remained stationary. The game
was so abundant, that the real difficulty was to restrain ourselves
from destroying more than was needful for our use. We had indeed,
failed to live strictly up to the law we had imposed upon ourselves,
for we had at all times trout and venison beyond our present wants,
excusing ourselves on the ground that an excess of supply was always
preferable to a scant commissariat. More than one deer was
slaughtered, if the truth must be told, for no better reason than that
given by an Irishman for smashing a bald head he chanced to see at a
window: it presented a mark too tempting to be resisted the lake
from our camping ground. We stationed two of our boats between the
island and the shore nearest the main land, and the other on the
opposite side, and sent Cullen upon the island to beat for game. It
was scarcely five minutes, before the voices of the dogs broke upon
the stillness of the morning, in a simultaneous and fierce cry, as if
they had started the game suddenly, and fresh from his lair. Away they
went in full cry across the island, the deer sweeping around the upper
end, and returning on the opposite side, as if loth to take to the
water; but true to their instincts, the hounds followed, making the
hills and the old woods ring again with the music of their voices.
Presently, a noble buck broke cover, directly opposite to where the
Doctor and Smith's boat lay. As our object was rather to enjoy the
music of the chase, than to capture the deer, they shouted and
hallooed as he entered the water, and he wheeled back, and went
tearing in huge affright through the woods, up the island again. Still
the howling was upon his trail, and as he approached the upper end, he
again took to the water, to be frightened back by Martin and myself,
and with renewed energy he bounded across to a point stretching out
into the lake on the opposite side. Here Spalding and Wood were
stationed, and they, by their shouting, drove him back again to the
thickets. By this time, the poor animal began to appreciate the full
peril of his position, for turn where he would he found an enemy in
front, while the cry of his pursuers followed him like his destiny.
Thus far every effort to escape by taking to the water had failed, and
he seemed to think, as Martin expressed it, that "day was breaking."
He essayed it again on the land side, and was driven back by us, and
thus he coursed three times round the island,