156 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



belying his assertion, he has succeeded in getting a dinner 

 at each of four different places on the same day. " But/' 

 she said, " they found him out ; and he finds it rather hard 

 to get asked out, or rather in, to dinner now-a-days." On 

 one occasion, on returning with me to camp, after an 

 unsuccessful morning, a good deal before the usual time 

 for dining, he complained of a severe attack of indiges- 

 tion, and adopted, as an unfailing remedy, a hearty meal 

 of fried pork — the fattest he could pick out of the bag. 

 He expressed himself to the effect that lubrication was 

 the best remedy for such complaints. 



The owls hooted most dismally in the forest that night 

 — a sure sign, as Williams said, of an approaching storm ; 

 and, as the sky looked threatening all the latter part of 

 the day, we retired to sleep, trusting to see a fall of fresh 

 snow in the morning, which was much wanted, to 

 obliterate the old tracks, and soften the surface of the 

 crust. 



Fresh falls of snow are necessary to continue and 

 ensure sport in the winter hunting-camp, especially in 

 the earlier part of the season. A few bright days thaw 

 the surface so that the night-frost produces a disagreeable 

 crust, which crunches and roars under the moccasin most 

 unmusically ; and then, unless the forest trees are shaken 

 by little short of a gale, you may give up all idea of 

 getting within shot of game. Day after day is often 

 thus spent listlessly in camp ; the same calm, frosty 

 weather continuing to prevent sport, a,nd the evil of the 

 crust on the snow gradually becoming worse ; the 

 Indians shaking their heads at the proposition to hunt 

 and uselessly disturb the country, and betaking them- 

 selves to cutting axe-handles, mending their moccasins, 



