incredible speed. Its head
and beak form a sharp point to its tapering neck. Its wings are far in
front and its legs equally far in the rear, and its course through the
crystal depths is like the speed of an arrow. In the northern lakes it
has been taken forty feet under water upon hooks baited for the great
lake trout. I had never seen one till last fall, when one appeared on
the river in front of my house. I knew instantly it was the loon. Who
could not tell a loon a half mile or more away, though he had never seen
one before? The river was like glass, and every movement of the bird as
it sported about broke the surface into ripples, that revealed it far
and wide. Presently a boat shot out from shore, and went ripping up
the surface toward the loon. The creature at once seemed to divine the
intentions of the boatman, and sidled off obliquely, keeping a sharp
lookout as if to make sure it was pursued. A steamer came down and
passed between them, and when the way was again clear, the loon was
still swimming on the surface. Presently it disappeared under the
water, and the boatman pulled sharp and hard. In a few moments the bird
reappeared some rods farther on, as if to make an observation. Seeing it
was being pursued, and no mistake, it dived quickly, and, when it came
up again, had gone many times as far as the boat had in the same space
of time. Then it dived again, and distanced its pursuer so easily that
he gave over the chase and rested upon his oars. But the bird made a
final plunge, and, when it emerged upon the surface again, it was over
a mile away. Its course must have been, and doubtless was, an actual
flight under water, and half as fast as the crow flies in the air.

The loon would have delighted the old poets. Its wild, demoniac laughter
awakens the echoes on the solitary lakes, and its ferity and hardiness
are kindred to those robust spirits.

XII

One notable difference between man and the four-footed animals which
has often occurred to me is in the eye, and the greater perfection, or
rather supremacy, of the sense of sight in the human species. All
the animals--the dog, the fox, the wolf, the deer, the cow, the
horse--depend mainly upon the senses of hearing and smell. Almost their
entire powers of discrimination are confined to these two senses. The
dog picks his master out of the crowd by smell, and the cow her calf out
of the herd. Sight is only partial recognition. The question can only
be s