124 AD I RON D AC. 



wilderness," Thoreau says, " seldom ever 

 howls. The howling is chiefly done by 

 the imagination of the traveller." Hunter 

 said he often saw bear tracks in the snow, 

 but had never yet met Bruin. Deer are 

 more or less abundant everywhere, and one 

 old sportsman declares there is yet a single 

 moose in these mountains. On our return, 

 a pioneer settler, at whose house we stayed 

 over night, told us a long adventure he had 

 had with a panther. He related how it 

 screamed ; how it followed him in the brush ; 

 how he took to his boat ; how its eyes gleamed 

 from the shore, and how he fired his rifle at 

 them with fatal effect. His wife, in the 

 mean time, took something from a drawer, 

 and as her husband finished his recital, she 

 produced a toe-nail of the identical animal 

 with marked dramatic effect. 



But better than fish or game or grand 

 scenery or any adventure by night or day, is 

 the wordless intercourse with rude Nature 

 one has on these expeditions. It is some- 

 thing to press the pulse of our old mother 

 by mountain lakes and streams, and know 

 what health and vigor are in her veins, and 

 how regardless of observation she deports 

 herself. 



