ave the first shot, if circumstances should
permit it. The noble animal came dashing proudly on his way, as if in
contempt of the danger he was leaving behind him. Of the greater
danger into which he was rushing, he was entirely unconscious, until
the crack of Smith's rifle broke upon his astonished ear. He was
unharmed, however, and quick as thought he wheeled and plunged back in
the direction from which he came; Spalding's rifle, as it echoed
through the forest, with the whistling of the ball in close proximity
to his head, added energy to his flight.

The rifles were scarcely reloaded when the deep baying of the hounds
was heard, and two more deer came crashing across the isthmus where we
were stationed. The foremost one went down before the doctor's
unerring rifle and cool aim, while the other ran the gauntlet of the
three other rifles, horribly frightened, but unharmed, away. The
hounds were called off, and with our game in one of the boats, we
rowed back around the promontory, and passed on towards the Saranac
River, which connects by a tortuous course of five miles, the Lower
Saranac with Round Lake.

Midway between these two lakes, is a fall, or rather rapids, down
which the river descends some ten feet in five or six rods through a
narrow rocky channel, around which the boats had to be carried. While
this was being done, Smith and Spalding adjusted their rods, eager to
make up in catching trout what they failed to achieve in the matter of
venison. And they succeeded. In twenty minutes they had fifteen
beautiful fish, none weighing less than half a pound, safely deposited
on the broad flat rock at the head of the rapids. "One throw more,"
said Smith, "and I've done;" and he cast his fly across the still
water just above the fall. Quick as thought it was taken by a
two-pound trout. Landing nets and gaff had been sent forward with the
baggage, and without these it was an exciting and delicate thing to
land that fish. The game was, to prevent him dashing away down the
rapids, or diving beneath the shelving rock above, the sharp edge of
which would have severed the line like a knife. Skillfully and
beautifully Smith played him for a quarter of an hour, until at last
the fish turned his orange belly to the surface, and ceased to
struggle. He was drowned.

We had in the morning directed the boatman in charge of the baggage to
go on in advance, and erect our tents on an island in Round Lake. When
we entered this be