88 THE ADIRONDACK. 



has made, "browsing" as he goes — expecting, most 

 rationally, that before he has finished the hill, another 

 thaw will come, when he will be able, without incon- 

 venience, to change his location. Is not this adapt- 

 ing one's self to circumstances ? 



But it is no child's play to go after these fellows in 

 midwinter ; for the places they select are remote and 

 lonely. It generally requires one to be absent days, 

 and from the more open settlements, weeks, to take 

 them. The hunters lash on their great snow-shoes, 

 which, like an immense webbed foot, keep them 

 on the surface ; and taking a sled and blankets with 

 them, start for some deep, dark, and secluded spot 

 which these animals are known to haunt. By night 

 they sleep on the snow, wrapped in their blankets ; 

 and when they draw near the place where they expect 

 to find a " yard," the utmost circumspection is used, 

 and every advance made with the stealthiness of an 

 Indian. Sometimes a moose will wind his enemies, 

 and then he is all agitation and excitement ; but the 

 fatal bullet ends at once his troubles and fears, and 

 his huge carcass is cut up, and the choicest parts car- 

 ried home on the sled or sleds. Many a crimson spot 

 is thus left on the snow in this wilderness, around 



