The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 99 



night's lodging in that piercing cold. First a fine 

 tree is selected, a huge giant whose towering crest 

 has overlooked Lake Joseph for three centuries at 

 least, and whose trunk is free from brushwood at 

 the base, whilst his spreading branches will form a 

 good shelter should it come on suddenly to snow. 

 Using their snow-shoes as shovels, the two young 

 men proceed to clear away a space several yards 

 in diameter, piling the snow at the edge of the 

 circular clearing as a wall, and the ground being 

 covered to the depth of over three feet, this snow 

 barrier is seven feet high by the time that they 

 have finished. 



And let me here remark that the Canadian snow 

 differs greatly from the moist stuff to which we are 

 accustomed in England. Owing to the intense 

 cold the Canadian snow is crisp, dry, and light — so 

 light that a much greater quantity of it is requisite 

 to produce an inch of water, than would be re- 

 quired in Great Britain. 



Taking their axes the young men next fell a fir 

 tree, and one lops off its branches while the ether 

 drags them to the clearing and strews the ground 

 thickly with the fragrant shoots. The trunk is 

 next "logged off" into lengths of about five feet, 

 and a roaring fire soon blazes at the foot of the 

 old pine. While Groves is felling another tree, 

 G 2 



