176 The Wilderness Hunter 



a crust through which a moose breaks at every 

 stride, or through deep snow in which a deer can 

 not flounder fifty yards. Usually he trots ; but when 

 pressed he will spring awkwardly along, leaving 

 tracks in the snow almost exactly like magnified 

 imprints of those of a great rabbit, the long marks 

 of the two hind legs forming an angle with each 

 other, while the forefeet make a large point almost 

 between. 



The caribou had wandered all over the bogs and 

 through the shallow pools, but evidently only at 

 night or in the dusk, when feeding or in coming 

 to drink ; and again we went on. Soon the timber 

 disappeared almost entirely, and thick brushwood 

 took its place ; we were in a high, bare alpine valley, 

 the snow lying in drifts along the sides. In places 

 there had been enormous rock-slides, entirely fill 

 ing up the bottom, so that for a quarter of a mile at 

 a stretch the stream ran underground. In the rock 

 masses of this alpine valley we, as usual, saw many 

 conies and hoary woodchucks. 



The caribou trails had ceased, and it was evi 

 dent that the beasts were not ahead of us in the 

 barren, treeless recesses between the mountains of 

 rock and snow; and we turned back down the val 

 ley, crossing over to the opposite or south side of 

 the stream. We had already eaten our scanty lunch, 

 for it was afternoon. For several miles of hard 

 walking, through thicket, marsh, and rock-slide, we 



