286 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



homespun of the country is the best material for the 

 woods. It is very strong, almost impossible to tear by 

 catching against the trees, and porous, which is also a 

 great advantage, as it dries so quickly. Its colour, too, is 

 in its favour, being so like that of rocks or tree stems. 

 An almost colourless material is as necessary for moose 

 hunting as it is for fishing, though I have seen a good 

 New York sportsman flinging over a clean pool on the 

 brightest of days with a scarlet flannel shirt and black 

 continuations, and get fish withal. 



The Canadian smock, known in England as the Norfolk 

 blouse, is a capital style of coat for hunting. Pockets 

 according to taste, and a piece of leather on either 

 shoulder and another on the inside of the right arm to 

 ease the pressure of the gun. 



The camp generally taken into the woods is a spread 

 of strong cotton cloth soaked with boiled oil and well 

 dried in the sun. Its shape is best understood by de- 

 scribing the framework of the camp as follows : — Two 

 uprights with forks at the end stuck into the ground some 

 eight or ten feet apart, the crutches about six feet from the 

 base ; a cross piece between these well lashed on, on 

 which rest the tops of some half-dozen long slanting poles 

 — fir or larch saplings. The canvas is spread over and 

 tied ; two wings (triangular pieces) form the sides, and 

 are tied to the uprights. This is the usual form of open 

 camp for summer or the fall. The fire is arranged in 

 front. You sleep on an elastic bed of silver-fir boughs 

 (not spruce, mind, or you would be most uncomfortably 

 pricked), artistically spread by the Indians underneath ; 

 they rough it in the open, and coil up under their blankets 

 at the foot of a tree on the opposite side of the fire. If 



