THE APPROACH OF WINTER 33 



an Indian, I was possessed with a boyish anxiety and 

 excitement to have a shot at a deer, an experience which 

 I had not yet enjoyed. Among the Indians it is not 

 unusual for the hunters to go an entire day, or perhaps 

 two, without food when engaged in the chase ; not from 

 choice, but through dire necessity. 



We constructed a temporary hut, similar to the one 

 already described, to pass the night in, and our supper 

 consisted of a few pieces of corn-cake, made of the coarse 

 flour, ground, or pounded between two stones by the 

 squaws. As there were no hares here, nor other small 

 animals or birds, we had to do without meat ; and our 

 only drink was the bitingly cold water from a small rill, 

 which we had to break four inches of ice to obtain. We 

 had the comfort of a famous fire, however, and there is a 

 surprising amount of cheerfulness to be acquired from a 

 good fire hi these silent wildernesses, as everywhere else. 



Another early start, this time without a breakfast, 

 but with the comforting assurance of Tom that we should 

 " hab plenty venison presently." We toiled, however, for 

 some six hours through the forest, where, as yet, there 

 was scarcely any snow, there not having been falls heavy 

 enough to cover the ground under the trees. There was 

 no brushwood, or even herbage, in this forest, and the 

 ground was covered with a thick carpet of fir spines, the 

 accumulation of many seasons, which was as soft to the 

 foot as the finest Turkish carpet. Through this dense 

 forest, where the light was but dim even at noon, the 

 unerring eye of the Indian traced the course of the 

 cariboo. So clear were the tracks to his discernment 

 that our pace was scarcely checked in following them. 

 I could see myself, here and there, where the carpet of 

 decayed leaves, or fir spines, had been disturbed, and 

 also the broken branches and saplings, snapped by the 

 weight of the animals, or nibbled as they passed. 



It was early afternoon before we came up with the 

 herd, which seemed to number about seventy. They 



c 



