CHAP. vii. FOREST MEDICINE. 109 



200, walking on the snow like the prairie hen, and feed- 

 ing on spruce-buds. 



Eabbits are very easily caught with snares, both 

 in summer and in winter. Their tracks in the winter 

 intersect the country in all directions, and make it look 

 like network on a large scale. After a snow-storm, all 

 tracks are obliterated, but in two or three days they 

 are numerous again. During the winter, rabbits burrow 

 in the snow to the surface of the ground and form 

 a warm round nest where they may he in safety, secure 

 from the most penetrating cold, which, in those elevated 

 regions, is not unfrequently severe enough to freeze 

 mercury. 



How difficult and uncomfortable it is to cook break- 

 fast in heavy rain, none but those who have tried can 

 tell. Pierre begged to be allowed to come into my 

 tent to knead the dough for bread, ' or the rain would 

 spoil it.' On receiving permission, he brought a large 

 fresh sheet of birch-bark, which he had just cut from 

 a neighbouring tree, and laying it on the spruce boughs, 

 began to make his bread. 



A shout of alarm from one of the voyageurs, who was 

 chopping some wood, drew us from the tent. He had 

 cut his foot with the axe. It was the work of a moment 

 to pull off his loose boot, run to the nearest balsam spruce, 

 get a tea-spoonful of the fresh balsam, and apply it to 

 the wound kept tightly closed with the finger. A bit of 

 rag was then put over the sticky gum, which caused it 

 to adhere so firmly, that the blood ceased to flow, and 

 in three days the wound had healed. 



'Pierre, w T hy do these Montagnais and Nasquapee 



