54 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



autumn during the rutting season. So acute is the sense 

 of hearing in this animal that the slightest false note on 

 the call will send the quarry flying in the reverse direction; 

 thus Indian companions are almost necessary to the white 

 hunter, they, from greater experience, having become 

 adepts in its use. The second is to pursue them on snow- 

 shoes after a heavy crust has been formed on the snow, 

 through the heat of spring sun by day and the sharp 

 frosts by night. As long shots at this quarry are seldom 

 fired, the sportsman will find the ordinary smooth-bore 

 gun quite as efficient as the rifle. A weapon of heavy 

 calibre is here also of great importance. 



I never think of the State of Maine without the most 

 intense feelings of pleasure, for among its pine-clad hills 

 and wood-embosomed lakes I enjoyed many, many weeks 

 and months so free from care, so productive of pleasure, 

 that the recollection can never pass away. 



This region of country is characterised by numerous 

 labyrinths of lakes that are scattered over it in every 

 direction, divided from each other by mountainous ridges, 

 clothed to their summits with giant pine-trees and the 

 many varieties of hard woods peculiar to these latitudes, 

 ;iliko giving beauty to the landscape and affording food 

 and shelter for every kind of northern game. On the 

 extensive flat meadows that edge these lakes or form the 

 margin of many of the numerous noble rivers, in the hol- 

 lows, ravines, and hill-sides, was the moose-deer's home 

 to be found, his choice of quarters being regulated by the 

 changes of the seasons. Portions of New Brunswick and 

 "Nova Scotia are now favourite resorts of this giant deer; 



