FOREST SPORTS. 233 



dripping on the biscuits, which are to serve thereafter as plat- 

 ters for the savory broil. 



Then comes the merry meal, seasoned by the hunter's Spar- 

 tan sauce, fatigue and hunger ; and when the appetites of all are 

 satiate with forest fare, succeed the moderate cup of Cognac, 

 Ferintosh, or Old Jamaica, — moderate, because the man is not, 

 who can drink hard to-night, and walk hard, let alone shooting 

 well, to-morrow, — the composing fumes of the hunter's pipe, 

 replenished with " the Indian weed that briefly burns," and such 

 yarns as are spun nowhere, unless it be in a forest camp, com- 

 plete the tale. 



Then while night is yet young, the fire is replenished, and 

 wrapped snugly in their warm blankets, with their feet to the 

 glowing embers, and their heads under the lee of the snow- 

 banks, the party lay them down to rest, under the azure canopy, 

 and sleep more soundly, and awake more freshly, than princes 

 who have courted rest on beds of down and purple. 



Awake, while the stars are yet bright, and the air keen and 

 cold, the brook, which last night tempered the goblets, this 

 morning laves the brows, and replenishes the kettles ; and a brief 

 early breakfast precedes the quick tramp through the morning's 

 gloaming. 



Thereafter, a short halt at noon, and a council — for they have 

 neared the "yard," and must manoeuvre now to get well to lee- 

 ward of it, for if a single Moose snuff the air tainted by " the 

 human," farewell to sport to-day. 



If all go rightly, if no tyro tread upon a cracking branch, or 

 speak unseasonably, or show himself in his eagerness ; if, having 

 laid aside all impediments, cast aside packs, unharnessed tobog- 

 gins, unbuckled snow-shoes — inapt machines for crawling ser- 

 pentine over the soft snow, and among thick-set cedar saplings— 

 the sportsmen can worm their way up, unheard and unsus- 

 pected, with the cocked rifle ready, to a spot which commands 

 the yard, beautiful is the scene to witness, and magnificent the 

 sport. The gigantic bulls are beheld within point-blank ranp-e, 

 flapping their huge ears lazily, or scratching their heads with 

 their great cloven feet, or licking their glossy coats, like cattle 



