WOOD RABBITS. .147 



we saw were old ones, the animals having passed there 

 several days previously. I wonld not have it supposed that 

 the moose are abnudant in any portion of this wilderness. 

 They have come to be few and far between, and exceedingly 

 wary at that. I could hear of none having been killed the 

 present season ; but that there are some left, as well as 

 bears, and wolves, and panthers, the tracks we saw gave 

 unmistakable evidence. 



We saw no appearance of tront in this lake, or in the 

 outlet of it above the upper chain of ponds. The stream 

 swarmed with chub and dace, a rare circumstance with the 

 streams of this region. Towards evening, we saw numbers 

 of little grey wood rabbits, hopping around among the dense 

 undergrowth on the ridge where our tents were situated, 

 squatting themselves down and cocking up their long ears, 

 as they paused occasionally to examine the strange visitors 

 who had come among them. They were very tame, not 

 seeming to regard our presence as a thing of much danger 

 to them. 



" Seeing those rabbits," remarked Smith, " reminds me of 

 an anecdote of my boyhood, which at the time occasioned 

 me an amount of mortification equalled only by the amuse- 

 ment it affords me, when I think of it in after years. On 

 my father's farm was a bush field, a place that had been 

 chopped and burned over, and then left to grow up with 

 bushes, making an excellent cover for wild wood rabbits. I 

 had seen them hopping about, when I went to turn away 



