FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 67 



handle your rifle and touch a trigger, and over them to wear 

 what in Scotland are called "hum'le mittens," which you can 

 draw oft" (from your right hand at any rate) in a second when 

 you want to fire your rifle. 



My Scottish friends who are present will know what 

 " hum'le mittens " are; to the uninitiated I may explain that 

 they are warm worsted woven gloves, a sort of bifurcated bag ; 

 in one compartment of which you put your thumb, in the other 

 your Jour " fingers in a bunch" and no better covering could 

 you have in extreme cold. 



Taboggans are long narrow sledges or sleighs about two 

 feet wide. They are of several kinds. One kind is made of a 

 very thin, wide board of hard wood, the whole width of the 

 tabogan and indeed forming its sole, the front of which is bent 

 upwards in a sort of circle, and attached to very slight stiffening 

 runners. This is the kind which is chiefly used for the fashion- 

 able amusement of "tabogganing " down hills, Arc. 



The other kind and which I used to prefer for hunting 

 expeditions, is made with two strong stiff runners joined together 

 by cross bars and shod either with thin plates of a very hard 

 wood (I forget the name) which takes a good polish on the snow 

 or ice, or with thin plates of steel about four or five inches wide 

 which are also bent or turned up in front, so as to mount over 

 fallen trees, branches, inequalities of ground, ttc, instead of catching 

 in them. 



Taboggans are drawn by a strong rope or hide belt which 

 you put across your shoulders and under your arms, so as to 

 leave your hands and arms free when necessary. 



I had myself a nice light steel shod taboggan as my powers 

 of hauling on a long day's tramp on snow shoes were far inferior 

 to those of Peter who used to take a load twice as heavy as 

 mine. 



In snow shoeing through the woods, whether hauling tabog- 

 gans or not, you always go in Indian file. 



The leader has much the hardest work, as not only has he 

 to cut away any tree or branch, but he has to " break path " as 

 we used to call it, which in soft deep snow is very hard work. 

 Late in the winter when the snow is well settled, and a crust 

 almost ice, has formed on the top of it, you do not sink at all, 

 but it is different in the early winter when the snow is soft and 

 light. Generally speaking every one steps exactly in the foot — 

 or rather snow shoe — steps of the leader, but in hauling, the two 

 first men while following exactly in the same track, sort of 

 cross step each other, which breaks down and hardens a track 

 just wide enough for the taboggans to run in. 



Hauling in jour things from the last settlement to whsre 



