28 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



specially made for me; and they were ever after my 

 favourite weapons. I used a rifle only for distant shots, 

 and a breech-loader for birds. I may add that a good 

 gun, like a good wife, is not to be picked up every day ; 

 and that gentlemen having arms made for them should 

 go to Birmingham and make their own arrangements for 

 their weapons. For all the so-called London guns are 

 made there; though, possibly, they are put together in 

 the City. Pay a maker his price, but insist that the 

 weapon shall be capable of a pre-arranged performance ; 

 and then when you find yourself within six paces of 

 a grizzly or black bear, you will have nothing to fear. 



We reached the wood which was our destination 

 at nightfall. The intervening country was well timbered, 

 being, in fact, forest land : but this spot was said to be 

 a favourite haunt of the wolves, and consisted of an 

 extensive tract of pine forest, with few or no other trees. 

 I suppose that the great number of hares here was the 

 attraction to the wolves. These hares, called wood-hares 

 by the trappers, presented a motley appearance ; for they 

 were just beginning to turn white. These were the Lepus 

 Americanus of the naturalists, and not the wood-hares of 

 the States, which do not change colour in the winter. 

 The ground they occupied was hilly; and they were 

 most abundant on the outskirts of a wood facing nearly 

 north-east, where there was a tract of ground covered 

 with thorny bushes with hare tracks between. The hares, 

 if not actually gregarious, were thickly scattered about ; 

 and we had a couple of brace, which I shot, for supper ; 

 but they were as flavourless as the mountain-hare. I 

 could have shot at least a couple of dozen, for they had 

 a habit of crouching under the bushes until closely 

 approached, thus affording a fixed mark for the Colt 

 revolver, with which I knocked them over, steadying my 

 hand against a tree. 



My companions objected to this firing, alleging that 

 it would alarm the wolves. That the Canadian wolf is 



