history will soon be all that will remain of the Indian and his
ancient brother the beaver.

Well, be it so, and who will regret it? It is a sad thing to see a
whole race perish, wiped out from the aggregate of human existence.
But in this instance, its place will be filled by a higher and nobler
race, and the hunting-ground of the savage and the pagan, be converted
into cultivated fields; where stood the wigwam, will stand the
farm-house; where the council-fires blazed, will stand the halls of
enlightened and Christian legislation; churches and school-houses, and
all the accompaniments of Christianity and civilization will take the
place of ancient forests; and educated, intellectual, cultivated minds
take the place of the rude, untaught, and unteachable men and women of
the woods.

As we re-entered the lake, we saw a noble buck feeding along the
shore, a short distance from us. We dropped behind a point of willows,
from the outer edge of which we would be in shooting distance. We
paddled silently round the point, and there, within fifteen rods of
us, he stood, broad side to us, presenting as beautiful a mark as a
man could wish. I counted him certainly ours, when I drew upon him
with my rifle. Well I blazed away, and as I did so, he raised his head
suddenly, gazed in astonishment at us for a moment, with his ears
thrown forward, and in an attitude of wildness, and then dashed madly
away into the forest, snorting like a war-horse at every bound. I had
not touched him, and I knew it the moment I fired. Our little boat was
light and rollish, and just as I pressed the trigger, it rolled
slightly on the water and my ball passed over, but mighty close to the
back of that deer. I was mortified enough at this mishap, for I prided
myself on my coolness and marksmanship, and here was a failure