60 A TASTE OF MAINE BIRCH. 



scrutinized it. The foliage was very dense, but pres» 

 eiitly he made out one of the cubs near the top, stand* 

 ing up amid the branches, and peering down at him. 

 This he killed. Further search only revealed a mass 

 of foliage apparently more dense than usual, but a 

 bullet sent into it was followed by loud whimpering 

 and crying, and the other baby bear came tumbling 

 down. In leaving the place, greatly puzzled as to 

 what had become of the mother bear. Uncle Nathan 

 followed another of her frozen tracks, and after about 

 a quarter of a mile saw beside it, upon the snow, the 

 fresh trail he had been in search of. In making her 

 escape the bear had stepped exactly in her old tracks 

 that were hard and icy, and had thus left no mark till 

 she took to the snow again. 



During his trapping expeditions into the woods in 

 midwinter, I was curious to know how Uncle Nathan 

 passed the nights, as we were twice pinched with the 

 cold at that season in our tent and blankets. It was 

 no trouble to keep warm, he said, in the coldest 

 weather. As night approached, he would select a 

 place for his camp on the side of a hill. With one of 

 his snow-shoes he would shovel out the snow till the 

 ground was reached, carrying the snow out in front, 

 as we scrape the earth out of the side of a hill to level 

 up a place for the house and yard. On this level 

 place, which, however, was made to incline slightly 

 toward the hill, his bed of boughs was made. On the 

 ground he had uncovered he built his fire. His bed 

 was thus on a level with the fire, and the heat could 

 not thaw the snow under him and let him down, or 

 the bdrning logs roll upon him. AVith a steep ascent 

 behind it the fire burned better, and the wind was not 

 80 apt to drive the smoke and blaze in upon him. 



