60 A TASTE OF MAINE BIRCH. 
scrutinized it. The foliage was very dense, but pres< 
ently he made out one of the cubs near the top, stand- 
ing up amid the branches, and peering down at him. 
This he killed. Further search only revealed a mass 
of foliage apparently more dense than usual, but a 
bullet sent into it was followed by loud whimpering 
and crying, and the other baby bear came tumbling 
down. In leaving the place, greatly puzzled as to 
what had become of the mother bear, Uncle Nathan 
followed another of her frozen tracks, and after about 
a quarter of a mile saw beside it, upon the snow, the 
fresh trail he had been in search of. In making her 
escape the bear had stepped exactly in her old tracks 
that were hard and icy, and had thus left no mark till 
she took to the snow again. 
During his trapping expeditions into the woods in 
midwinter, I was curious to know how Uncle Nathan 
passed the nights, as we were twice pinched with the 
cold at that season in our tent and blankets. It was 
no trouble to keep warm, he said, in the coldest 
weather. As night approached, he would select a 
place for his camp on the side of a hill. With one of 
his snow-shoes he would shovel out the snow till the 
ground was reached, carrying the snow out in front, 
as we scrape the earth out of the side of a hill to level 
up a place for the house and yard. On this level 
place, which, however, was made to incline slightly 
toward the hill, his bed of boughs was made. On the 
ground he had uncovered he built his fire. His bed 
was thus on a level with the fire, and the heat could 
not thaw the snow under him and let him down, or 
the burning logs roll upon him. With a steep ascent 
behind it the fire burned better, and the wind was not 
so apt to drive the smoke and blaze in upon him, 
a m~ 
I ml etiam nn 
