Page:Eleven years in the Rocky Mountains and a life on the frontier.djvu/372

326 But ah, how little thought this simple fish,

The toils and perils she had yet to suffer,

The chance she ran of serving as a dish

For hungry white men or for Indian's supper,—

Of enemies in which the stream abounded,

When lo! she's by a fisher's net surrounded.

Partly conscious of her approaching end,

She darts with meteoric swiftness to and fro,

Striking the frail meshes, within which she's penned,

Which bid defiance to her stoutest blow:

To smaller compass by degrees the snare is drawn,

When with a leap she clears it and is gone.

Once more at large with her companions, now

Become more cautious from her late escape,

She keeps in deeper water and thinks how

Foolish she was to get in such a scrape;

As mounting further up the stream, she vies

With other fish in catching gnats and flies.

And as she on her way did thus enjoy

Life's fleeting moments, there arose a panic

Amongst the stragglers, who in haste deploy

Around their elder leaders, quick as magic,

While she unconscious of the untimely rout,

Was by a hungry otter singled out:

Vigorous was the chase, on the marked victim shot

Through the clear water, while in close pursuit

Followed her amphibious foe, who scarce had got

Near enough to grasp her, when with turns acute,

And leaps and revolutions, she so tried the otter,

He gave up the hunt with merely having bit her.

Scarce had she recovered from her weakness, when

An ancient eagle, of the bald-head kind,

Winging his dreary way to'rds some lone glen,

Where was her nest with four plump eaglets lined,

Espied the fish, which he judged quite a treat,

And just the morsel for his little ones to eat:

And sailing in spiral circles o'er the spot,

Where lay his prey, then hovering for a time,

To take his wary aim, he stooped and caught

His booty, which he carried to a lofty pine;

Upon whose topmost branches, he first adjusted

His awkward load, ere with his claws he crushed it.