A DAY IN THE BIG WOODS 165 



This dam was formerly used by the lumbermen to 

 store enough water to enable them to rush their logs 

 down the lake below when the snow melted in the 

 Spring. For a couple of miles above the dam the 

 backing up of the water in former years had killed all 

 the trees near the banks of the stream and in their place 

 alder and hazel bushes had grown up in semi-tropical 

 profusion. Here, among the swale and wire-grass, the 

 deer and moose often spend their time, feeding at 

 night and taking their rest during the day. On one 

 side of the stream, where the grass was tall enough to 

 almost hide a man standing upright, I saw one bed 

 that a moose had occupied the night before and more 

 than twenty in which the deer had been lying. 



Two miles away from this big-game Elysium is a 

 dry bog frequented by caribou and to which, for that 

 reason, we gave the name of " the Caribou Bog." It 

 is not to the bog, however, that my story relates, but 

 to the " Dam Camp " and its environments. Now 

 I warn the reader that he must not look for anything 

 in my story to shake his nerves and make his hair 

 stand on end, porcupine-fashion, although the sharp- 

 quilled animal may and does figure in it to some ex- 

 tent. No, my tale is merely a recital of what any man 

 may see and on any day — if he chooses to visit the re- 

 gion of the Dam Camp and keep his eyes open. 



One morning, a little after five o'clock, I started up 

 the brook to take a look over the dam. It was not 



