112 ' FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. • 



On such a morning the clear, affecting notes of the 

 hermit thrush seem more joyous than at his spring 

 advent, and other lingering songsters — the white-throated 

 sparrow, the red-breasted grosbeak, and the well-known 

 robin — pour forth their strains as if in praise for the 

 blessing of renewed summer life. 



Our hunt through the neighbouring woods that fore- 

 noon was unsuccessful; all the tracks, though recent, 

 showed that the moose had left the immediate vicinity. 

 The " going " was bad, and, returning to camp, we deter- 

 mined to start immediately with our loads for some 

 extensive barrens, of which the Indian knew, at a few 

 miles' distance. 



Our path lay through a large evergreen forest, and the 

 walking on soft feather-moss was most refreshing after 

 the painful morning's trudge over rocks and wind-falls. 

 The ground was gently descending ; and in the valley 

 were little circular swamps and bogs where the firs 

 showed evidences of the unhealthy situation by their 

 scant foliage, and the profuse moss-beards which clung 

 to them. 



A dense covert of fern, coloured a golden brown in its 

 autumnal decay, grew in the swamp : here and there a 

 bunch of bright scarlet leaves of swamp-maple glowed 

 amono-st the colourless stems of rotted trees. 



In situations like this the moose Hkes to dwell in the 

 fall, and frequent tracks attested the very recent presence 

 of these animals in the valley through which we were 

 travelling. Here and there the moss was scraped up in 

 barrows-full, and the dark soil beneath hollowed out in a 

 pit, giving out a strongly offensive odour as we passed ; 

 in fact, the moose had, as Williams told us, only that 



