98 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



To our disgust it still rained when we awoke next 

 morning ; the wind was in the same direction, and the 

 same gloomy sky promised no better things for us that 

 day. The old Indian, however, drew on his moccasins, 

 and started off to the barren by himself to take a survey 

 of the country whilst the breakfast was preparing, and I 

 gloomily threw myself back on the blanket for another 

 snooze. After an hour or so's absence, Joe returned, and 

 sat down to his breakfast (we had finished ours, and were 

 smoking), looking very wet and excited. " Two moose 

 pass round close to camp last night," said he ; "I find 

 their tracks on barren. They gone down the little valley 

 towards the lake, and I see their tracks again in the 

 woods quite fresh. You get ready, Capten; I have notion 

 we see moose to-day. I see some more tracks on the 

 barren going southward ; however, w^e try the tracks 

 near camp first, — maybe we find them, if not started by 

 the smell of the fire." 



We were soon at it, and left our camp with hopeful 

 hearts and in Indian file, stepping lightly in each other s 

 tracks over the elastic moss. Everything was in first-rate 

 order for creeping on the moose ; the fallen leaves did 

 not rustle on the ground, and even dead sticks bent with- 

 out snapping, and we progressed rapidly and noiselessly 

 as cats towards the lake. Presently we came on the 

 tracks, here and there deeply impressed in a bare spot of 

 soil, but on the moss hardly discernible except to the 

 Indian's keen vision. They were going down the valley; 

 a little brook coursed through it towards the lake, and 

 from the mossy banks sprung graceful bushes of moose- 

 wood and maple, on the young shoots of which the moose 

 had been feeding as they passed. The tracks showed that 



