A HEAVY SNOWSTORM. 201 



trotted off. They made for a thick belt of trees 

 some two hundred yards nearer the centre of 

 the valley, but had to cross a very open piece 

 of ground before reaching this shelter, and 

 before they did so I fired twice at the larger 

 bull, and heard both bullets tell. Then they 

 were lost to view amongst the dark spruce 

 trees. 



The ground in the valley was covered with 

 snow, though it had nearly all been blown from 

 the steep hillside above, and the moose tracks 

 were therefore very easy to follow, the more 

 especially as there was a good deal of blood 

 sprinkled all along the trail. At the very 

 moment, however, that I entered the piece of 

 forest in which the moose had disappeared from 

 my view a heavy snowstorm came on, and in 

 a very few minutes not only were all the traces 

 of blood completely hidden, but the footprints 

 of the wounded animal were so filled with snow 

 that it was quite impossible to pick them out 

 amongst other and older tracks. 



The wounded bull had been making straight 

 towards the stream, which ran at the bottom of 



