Hunting in the Selkirks 181 



shoes after the same game, and with the same result. 

 However, I enjoyed the trip, for the northland 

 woods are very beautiful and strange in winter, as 

 indeed they are at all other times and it was my 

 first experience on snowshoes. I used the ordinary 

 webbed racquets, and as the snow, though very 

 deep, was only imperfectly crusted, I found that for 

 a beginner the exercise was laborious in the extreme, 

 speedily discovering that, no matter how cold it 

 was, while walking through the windless woods I 

 stood in no need of warm clothing. But at night, 

 especially when lying out, the cold was bitter. Our 

 plan was to drive in a sleigh to some logging camp, 

 where we were always received with hearty hospi 

 tality, and thence make hunting trips, in very light 

 marching order, through the heart of the surround 

 ing forest. The woods, wrapped in their heavy 

 white mantle, were still and lifeless. There were a 

 few chickadees and woodpeckers ; now and then we 

 saw flocks of red-polls, pine linnets, and large, rosy 

 grossbeaks ; and once or twice I came across a grouse 

 or white rabbit, and killed it for supper ; but this was 

 nearly all. Yet, though bird life was scarce, and 

 though we saw few beasts beyond an occasional 

 porcupine or squirrel, every morning the snow was 

 dotted with a network of trails made during the 

 hours of darkness ; the fine tracery of the footprints 

 of the little red wood-mouse, the marks which showed 

 the loping progress of the sable, the V and dot of 



