110 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



plentifully strewed with moose hair, showing how th< 

 moose had struggled with the bear towards the woods, 

 where no doubt the affair was ended, and the bear dine( 

 The full-grown moose is far too powerful an animal to' 

 dread the attack of the bear ; it is only the unprotected 

 calf, separated from its parent, which is occasionally 

 pounced upon. 



We reached the barren that afternoon, wet and un- 

 comfortable, and were right glad when a roaring fire 

 rose up in front of the little gipsy-like camp, partly 

 of cut bushes and partly of birch bark, which the 

 Indian constructed for us in the middle. We did 

 not care for the possibility of disturbing any stray 

 moose that might be in the immediate neighbourhood ; 

 the wind was rising and chasing away the murky 

 clouds from the northward, and there was no chance of 

 calling that night, so we passed the afternoon in drying 

 ourselves, and keeping up the fire, which was no easy 

 matter, as the woods skirting the barren were at some 

 distance, and the barren itself offered nothing but clumps 

 of wet green bushes, moss- tufts, ground laurels, and rocks. 

 The night was clear and frosty, as is generally the case 

 after rain ; it was so cold that we could not sleep much, 

 and our wood failed us. Once, on going out to search for 

 some sticks, I heard a moose calling in the thick forest 

 through which we were to proceed in the morning, in 

 search of more distant hunting-grounds. 



The prospect from our little grotto of bushes, as we 

 breakfasted next morning, was charming ; the tops of the 

 maple-covered hills, which sloped down towards the 

 barren on either side, were delicately tinged with warm 

 brownish-red, deepened by the frost of the previous night; 



