THE MOOSE. 175 



game on the morrow, the Indians had excluded 

 them from the cabin and had given them no dinner. 

 One by one, however (profiting by the inattention of 

 the Eed Skins), they crept in. About midnight, I 

 •was awakened with a sensation like that of a hand 

 of iron laid upon my shoulder. In a short time I 

 realised that it was the cold. In fact, the brandy 

 •was freezing in our bottles, and I never remember 

 to have experienced such cold as we felt that night. 

 At length day dawned and we soon resumed our 

 journey. We had now to traverse a rough and 

 rocky country, and so steep in many places that we 

 ■were obliged to cling to the rocks and branches of 

 the trees. Sometimes by putting our snow shoes 

 together we would glide down a slope with great 

 rapidity, but it occasionally happened that an ob- 

 stacle in the way would bring us to grief with any- 

 thing but a pleasant expression of countenance. It 

 was really most fatiguing work, and the great wonder 

 ■was how the Indians found their way; but, acquainted 

 as they were with all the sinuosities of the desert, 

 they seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of the 

 path even below the crust of snow. At length our 

 leading guide exhibited great delight at seeing the 

 banks of a stream which (he said) could not be far 

 from the tracks of the moose which we were search- 

 ing after. 



In the language of Canadian huntsmen the lair 

 frequented by moose is called a ravage, and the 



