HUNTING IN THE SELKIRKS, 173 



The following February I made a trip on 

 snow-shoes after the same game, and with the 

 same result. However, I enjoyed the trip, for 

 the northland woods are very beautiful and 

 strange in winter, as indeed they are at all 

 other times and it was my first experience on 

 snow-shoes. I used the ordinary webbed 

 racquets, and as the snow, though very deep, 

 was only imperfectly crusted, I found that for 

 a beginner the exercise was laborious in the 

 extreme, speedily discovering that, no matter 

 how cold it was, while walking through the 

 windless woods I stood in no need of warm 

 clothing. But at night, especially when lying 

 out, the cold was bitter. Our plan was to 

 drive in a sleigh to some logging camp, where 

 we were always received with hearty hospital- 

 ity, and thence make hunting trips, in very 

 light marching order, through the heart of the 

 surrounding forest. The woods, wrapped in 

 their heavy white mantle, were still and life- 

 less. There were a few chickadees and wood- 

 peckers ; now and then we saw flocks of red- 

 polls, pine linnets, and large, rosy grossbeaks ; 

 and once or twice I came across a grouse or 

 white rabbit, and killed it for supper ; but 

 this was nearly all. Yet, though bird life was 

 scarce, and though we saw few beasts beyond 

 an occasional porcupine or squirrel, every 

 morning the snow was dotted with a network 

 of trails made during the hours of darkness ; 

 the fine tracery of the footprints of the little 

 red wood-mouse, the marks which showed the 

 loping progress of the sable, the V and dot of 

 the rabbit, the round pads of the lucivee, and 

 many others. The snow reveals, as nothing 



