LOST IN THE WILDERNESS 197 



first occurred to me I was only ten years old. 

 We were then living at Mingan. I was used to 

 running around in the bush, setting rabbit snares 

 and small traps and occasionally shooting a few 

 partridges. 



One afternoon I went out as usual, and after 

 visiting my snares, was just on the point of return- 

 ing home, when I raised a large covey of spruce 

 partridges. They scattered around and took to the 

 trees. I had a single-barrel muzzle-loader and 

 began to shoot. Occasionally the report of the 

 gun or the fluttering of a falling bird would alarm 

 the others and they would fly away a short dis- 

 tance. So I wandered around, killing a bird now 

 and then, till I had sixteen, when I suddenly per- 

 ceived that night was setting in. In my excite- 

 ment of chasing the birds I had not thought of the 

 time. It was late in October and cloudy, but 

 there was no snow on the ground and consequent- 

 ly no chance of following my tracks back again. 

 I was then about three miles from the house, so 

 shouldering birds and gun I started off in what I 

 thought was the right direction. I walked and 

 ran when I had the chance to do so, till it seemed 

 to me that I must have been going for over an 

 hour and should have been out of the woods if I 

 had gone right. It was then quite dark and I 

 had to keep my arm in front of my eyes so as to 

 avoid injury from the branches as I groped along. 

 I pushed on for a few minutes more, though it 



