The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-30

channel and moved on down the hill with ever-increasing speed. This was the beginning of a trout brook. and as 1t was going in my direction l followed II. Not far below, a third tiny stream let pushed out from beneath hemlock root and joined forces with the brook, which seemed to announce the fact with a rather noisy splashing as it Ieaped from jutting stone into clear pool Whence it raced over a pebbly bottom, and turned sharply round a rock projecting from the mountain side.
 One can hardly believe, without ac- tually watching it's progress. how quickly such a trout brook grows. In a distance of less than a mile. this stream I was following had grown from few drops trickling through the moss, to a noisy, splashing, squirting, foaming force of water, such as would delight the heart of any lover of the fly-rod.
 Presently I came to a spot where a large boulder literally split the brook in two, turning one stream to the right and the other to the left, to meet again some fifty yards below, forming little island. The latter was covered with trees, and on the ground beneath them were ferns and mosses of many kinds. I had been almost unconscious ly looking for spot in which to lie down and watch the brook, and this green little island seemed the very place. l sprang across the stream it was less than six feet wide-and lay at full length upon the moss with my elbows resting on a flattish stone and with my chin in the palms of my hands l was looking up stream, and could see three of the tiny waterfalls I had lately passed. The nearest was the largest and the most beautiful, the small cascade of sparkling water leap ing from. the edge of a shelving rock to clear pool fully two feet below. From the bank and close to the fall many ferns Were growing, and as they were pelted With the spray, they glis- tened and nodded Above the sound of the water, I could hear the loud tap ping of a pileated wOodpecker, and as l turned my head to try and get 8 glimpse of him, I saw a deer walking among the trees. He was evidently a fawn of the present year, but he had lost his spots and his red coat, and was already attired in winter gray. He sauntered along, now dropping his head to nihble a tuft of grass: now lifting it to browse on the leaves of some twig above his head. Soon lhe reached the brook, and stood, just above the nearest waterfall, quite un- conscious of any presence but his own. He sniffed the water, took a drink, and then proceeded with his toilet. First he raised his right hind leg, and craning his neck backwards to meet it., daintily scratched his ear with his hoof. Then he licked his side with his long tongue, rubbed his face up and down his fore leg, and then rafsing his hind foot again, stretched it as far for- ward as possible, and licked the leg as far back as he could reach. Then he gaped, as though tired from his exer- tions, and dropping on hs Knees, lay down on the plpss by the side of the brook, and calmly chewed the cud.
 For many minutes I watched the fawn, and had about decided that I should have to move in order to reach home by daylight, when I became aware of something moving below the little waterfall. Whatever it was, I saw it only indistinctly out of the cor ner of my eye, and turned my head to get better look. Beside the pool into which the water splashed. there grew large spruce tree which partly over- hung the waters Just below 1t there was a hollow in the bank. extending back among the partly uncovered roots of the tree, In the shadow of this hol- low, some small white object passed, and at once was followed by another. Both objects passed out of sght; but watched, hoping for their .reappear- ance, and in few minutes. I was re- warded by seeing one of them return. This time it came right out into the sunlight, and I saw that it was the white patch on the throat of a large mink He ran to the edge of the water, sat up on his hind legs to the full height of his long body sniffed the