We understood their
purpose, and sat perfectly silent. The deer struck the island directly
in front of our tent, and dashed forward in wild affright, right
through the midst of us, towards the thicket in our rear, glad to be
rid of his pursuers on the water. As he bounded past us, we sprang up
and shouted, and if ever a dumb animal was astonished it was that
deer. He leaped up a dozen feet into the air, bleated out in the
extremity of his terror, and plunged madly forward, as if a whole
legion of fiends were at his tail. The stag hounds which were tied to
a sapling, by their fierce baying, added vigor to his flight. We heard
his snort at every bound across the island, and his plunge into the
lake on the other side.
In the morning we sent forward our boatman with the tents and baggage
to an island on the Upper Saranac, and coasted this pleasant little
lake. On the right, as you approach the head, is a deep bay, skirted
by a natural meadow, where the rank wild grass, and the pond lilies
that grow along the shore furnish a rich pasture for the deer. We saw
several feeding quietly like sheep, on the little plain and upon the
lily pads in the edge of the water. We paddled silently to within a
dozen rods of them, when, as they discovered us, they dashed snorting
and whistling away.
On the right of this meadow, and among the tall forest trees are
great boulders which, piled up and partly obscured by the undergrowth,
resemble from the lake the massive ruins of some ancient
fortification.
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