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Le Mercier speaks of an Indian, sixty years of age, who walked twelve miles to taste the wild-fowl killed by the French hunter. "This life is short, and very miserable. It matters little whether we live or die." The patient remained silent, or grumbled his dissent.
They sang these verses to a weird, haunting melody: "The wild-fowl are calling: come back to the lake! O nixies come back, or your proud hearts must break; The moonbeams are glancing, the fairies are dancing, Come back. The grey mists are rising! Beware, O beware! For though you are slender and though you are fair, Your treacherous waters, O nixy king's daughters, Can slay.
There was an innumerable flock of wild-fowl arranged in rows along the sides of the pools left by the tide, and we were again amused by the singular effect of the refraction upon them, and the grotesque and distorted forms they exhibited. Swans, pelicans, ducks, and geese, were mingled together, and, according to their distance from us, presented different appearances.
As the excursion might prove a long one, and as in that uncertain climate they might be detained by bad weather, they carried provisions for a couple of days, hoping, should they be kept out longer, to be able to kill some seals or wild-fowl for their support.
The flacker of wild-fowl overhead, the skim of ice forming on the lake, the poignant sting of the north wind all fore-warned winter's approach. Jean de la Vérendrye had not come up with the supplies from Michilimackinac. The explorer did not tempt mutiny by going farther.
But the mattress of this rude couch was formed of buffalo-skins, covered with thick, long luxurious hair; above which were spread two large green mackinaw blankets of the thickest description; and the canvas pillow-case was stuffed with the softest down, purchased from the wild-fowl of California with leaden coin, transmitted through the Yankee's unerring rifle.
The lake regions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta form what is probably the most important wild-fowl breeding-ground in North America. To a great extent it rests with those provinces to say whether the central United States shall have any ducks and geese, or not!
The superabundance of venison and wild-fowl; the cooking done in the open air; the absence of women, and the performance of work usually allotted to them by bronzed and stalwart voyageurs; the wild scenery in the midst of which it took place; and the mixture of Irish, English, French, Indian, Esquimau, and compound tones, that fell upon the ear as the busy work went on, all tended to fill the mind with a feeling of wild romance, and to suggest powerfully the idea of being, if we may so express it, far, far away!
I had been some time on board when we put into a port at the Falkland Islands, then uninhabited, to obtain a supply of water. While the crew of the boats were engaged in filling the casks, Mr Duncan, one of the gentlemen, taking young Sam with him, went into the interior to shoot wild-fowl.
There is a prolix account of the marriage- feast, of which we can pick out the names of a few dishes, such as peterel, crane, sturgeon, swan, etc. etc., with a profusion of wild-fowl and venison.
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