62 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



bad permitted silently to drift with the current. Suddenly 

 I heard a splash, as if all the fish in the river had collected 

 to make a simultaneous rise ; but, instead of fin, it was 

 fur, and a splendid moose, bearing a noble head of antlers, 

 plunged through the weeds, and soon disappeared in the 

 recesses of the forest. If I had been prepared, or even 

 had my gun been obtainable at a minute's notice, I 

 could almost with certainty have administered the coup 

 dc (jrace. 



When the season advances, and the sparse advent snows 

 occasionally give warning that winter is at hand, the moose 

 deer leave the morass and river banks for higher ground. 

 Here they collect in families previous to yarding, which 

 takes place as soon as the lands of these northern wilds 

 have received their annual deep and pure white covering. 

 At this time the moose lives in comparative security, his 

 length of limb and tremendous power enabling him to defy 

 all pursuers. Enjoy well thy rest enjoy it, I say, for it 

 is but for a short season : for when the sun again warms 

 the landscape, and a crust becomes formed through the 

 thaw by day and frost of night, powerful and noble though 

 you be, you will require more than that superhuman power 

 to save you from the persevering Indian or venturous white 

 man. Poor creature ! your chance when pursued, after a 

 heavy crust is formed, is indeed small. I know no denizen 

 of the forest that, at any period of life, has the odds so 

 fearfully against him. 



As may be imagined, then, the end of February and 

 March are the periods when the greatest havoc among 

 these animals takes place, and I regret to say that 



