20 November — Silence of the Woods. 



against the forest gloom and the starless blackness of 

 the sky. Near to us were some resinous firs, and under 

 them Alexis found quantities of large cones, rich in tur- 

 pentine, which kept our fire up very brilliantly. 



I had carefully economized my brandy, and now ad- 

 ministered enough of it to give us a little temporary 

 comfort ; but we suffered seriously from hunger. Alexis 

 had killed nothing with his gun, or else we might have 

 tried our skill at such rough cookery as the circumstan- 

 ces permitted, but the cartridges he had with him turned 

 out to be very useful to us ultimately. The lesson of 

 the day's misadventure was certainly not lost upon 

 either of us. Alexis declared that in future he would 

 never trust himself in the forest without a mariner's 

 compass in his pocket, and I mentally determined that on 

 all future expeditions we would carry soldiers' rugs and 

 a little supply of provisions. I had at least the consola- 

 tion of my pipe, which aids a man wonderfully to sup- 

 port privation, and deadens the sense of hunger. 



The hours passed one by one, and Alexis was over- 

 powered with sleep. I cut a quantity of heather and 

 covered him with it entirely ; after which I sat watching 

 by his bed, and supplying fuel to the fire of our bivouac. 

 There is a death-like silence in the woods on a winter's 

 night, but I consoled myself for the quiescence of the 

 nightingale by the torpor of a great population of vipers 

 which inhabit the crevices of the rocks, and are danger- 

 ous things in summer. No sound was audible but the 

 rushing of the rapid stream and the monotonous murmur 

 of its cascades. 



