A MOOSE HUNT ON SNOW-SHOES 



129 



matters little, so long as there is no snow or rain. The moose often 

 travels scores of miles before he is overtaken, necessitating the ' camp- 

 ing out ' of his pursuers, and when as sometimes happens a storm 

 of sleet and rain follows, on the succeeding day the quarry can make 

 good his escape while his pursuers are landed in an uncomfortable 

 and perhaps perilous situation. Very different is their journey 

 homeward when the snow is soaked with rain and the ice over the 

 brooks has become soft and treacherous. Then the sport becomes 

 cruelly hard, and an acute attack of rheumatism the frequent 

 consequence. 



On the particular morning of the hunt to be described, the 



IN THE WINTER HAUNTS OF THE MOOSE. AN EXAMPLE OF THE ' SILVER THAW '. 



phenomenon known as the ' silver thaw ' had loaded each shrub 

 and tree to the minutest twig with a crystalline coating of ice and 

 rime, which had transformed the wilderness scenery into a very 

 plausible imitation of fairy-land. The previous day had seen a 

 brief storm of sleet, followed by a warm atmosphere with some 

 gentle rain, terminated abruptly by the sharp veering of the wind 

 to the north. Snow, rain, hail, and frost together had done their 

 work effectively. An inch or two of crusted snow had been the 

 result, while walls and fences and every spray of every tree was 

 seen to be incrusted in shining ice. The heads and limbs of trees 

 were lowered and bent, the lower branches drooping and massed 



