RACE FOR LIFE. 135 



entirely with the nose. Their bloodthirsty instincts 

 are insatiable. Woe be to the farmer in whose 

 vicinity one of these animals takes up its residence ; 

 for if it should gain access to his fold, not a member 

 of his flock would be left alive. There is but one 

 animal in the forest that is able to cope with him, 

 and that is the adult bull-moose ; but when age 

 and the decrepitude of years have weakened his 

 frame, he must also succumb before this scourge of 

 the northern forest lands. 



'When I tell you this, can you be surprised 

 that fear lent me wings, and that every muscle and 

 every sinew was strained to the utmost tension in 

 a race in which life was the reward? Trees, stumps, 

 and fallen timber were passed. All was dead silence, 

 save the sound caused by the grating of my skate. 

 My ear anxiously listened for further indications of 

 the proximity of the dreaded foe, while the sole 

 response thus far it had received was the impetuous 

 palpitation of my heart, caused by the unaccustomed 

 severity of the exercise and the increased velocity 

 of the circulation of my blood. Despair had not 

 taken possession of me, though hope had but feeble 

 grounds to exist upon : but the further I advanced 

 it increased ; for, could I but gain the expanse of 

 the wider river, I felt the prospect of escape more 

 probable, as by pursuing my course down its centre 

 I should at least be free from surprise. A couple 

 of hundred yards more and it would have been 

 reached, when, distinctly on right and left, I heard 



