172 ON THE FRONTIER. 



Those two redoubtable dogs, Nip and Tug, managed, 

 however, to keep fat, for they "struck a lead." We had 

 caught a great many lynxes, and, after skinning, had thrown 

 their carcases away, at some little distance from the camp, in 

 a heap, and most of them being frozen were not the worse 

 for keeping. One of these hidden delicacies the dogs dug 

 out of the snow, whenever they were hungry, and seemed to 

 relish well enough. Experto crede, we would follow the 

 example set us by sagacity, and see how lynxes " went ; " so, 

 picking out a promising-looking one, we tried a stew ; then 

 another, and tried a roast ; then a barbecue. No go ! 

 " Lynx was no good no ways ; no how you could fix 

 him," as Joe said. Now we had no squeamishness about 

 eating a lynx, for we were very hungry for meat of any kind ; 

 but lynx-meat would not stop eaten, so we had to abandon the 

 experiment. 



The fifth morning succeeding the departure of our com- 

 panions, fortune smiled upon us, just as soon after daylight 

 we sat cooking our last handful of corn. \Ve should not even 

 have had that to cook had we not pinched ourselves lately 

 in our allowance. 



Joe was a good man and true, brave, honest, and 

 reliable ; but he was a big hearty fellow, with a fine 

 appetite, and could not stand short- commons, and so had 

 become full of dismal forebodings. He was for killing the 

 dogs that afternoon, flaying them, salting the meat, making 

 snow-shoes, and taking the trail of the relief party. He 

 was sure they would be lost and we should starve. Joe had 

 been already singing " The very same words to the very 

 same tune " for two days, so I only made fun of him. 



