young lambs they gambolled on the shore. Genuine sport is not
butchery of inoffensive creatures that cannot be utilised for the
benefit of parties shooting them.

They had some rare sport in trying to shoot the great northern diver,
called in this country the loon. It is a bird as large and heavy as the
wild goose. Its feathers are so thick and close that they easily turn
aside ordinary shot. Its bill is long and sharp, and with it in battle
can inflict a most ugly wound. The feathers on its breast are of snowy
whiteness, while on the rest of the body they are of a dark brown colour
approaching to black flecked with white. Its peculiar legs are wide and
thin; its webbed feet are so large that it can swim with amazing
rapidity. On land it is a very awkward and ungainly bird, and can
hardly move along; but in the water it is a thing of beauty, and as a
diving bird it has, perhaps, no equal. It has a strange mournful cry,
and seems to utter its melancholy notes more frequently before an
approaching storm than at any other time. The Indians, who are most
excellent judges of the weather and quick to notice any change, have
great confidence in the varied cries of the loon. It is a marvellous
diver, and is able to swim great distances under the water with amazing
rapidity, only coming up, when pursued, for an instant, at long
intervals to breathe.

The loon is very hard to kill. A chance long-distance bullet or a shot
in the eye does occasionally knock one over, but as a general thing the
Indians, none too well supplied with ammunition, let them alone, as when
shot they are of but little worth. Their flesh is tough and tasteless,
and the only thing at all prized is the beautiful skin, out of which the
Indian women manufacture some very picturesque fire-bags.

As several of these loons were seen swimming in Play Green Lake as our
party paddled along, Mr Ross decided to give the boys a chance to show
their skill and quickness in firing at them, although he hardly imagined
any of them would be struck. The sportsman who would strike them must
have an alert eye and quick aim to fire the instant they are up, as they
are down again so suddenly, only to reappear again some hundreds of
yards off in the most unexpected place.

The three canoes were paddled to positions about a third of a mile
apart, like as at the points of an equilateral triangle. In this large
space thus inclosed several loons were surrounded, and th