52 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



tion ; thus Indian companions are almost necessary to 

 the white hunter, they, from greater experience, having 

 become adepts in its use. The second is to pursue 

 them on snow-shoes after a heavy crust has been 

 ormed on the snow, through the heat of spring sun 

 by day and the sharp frosts by night. As long shots 

 at this quarry are seldom fired, the sportsman will find 

 the ordinary smooth-bore gun quite as efficient as the 

 rifle. A weapon of heavy calibre is here also of great 

 importance. 



I never think of the State of Maine without the 

 most intense feelings of pleasure, for among its pine- 

 clad hills and wood-embosomed lakes I enjoyed many, 

 many weeks and months so free from care, so pro- 

 ductive of pleasure, that the recollection can never 

 pass away. 



This region of country is characterised by numerous 

 labyrinths of lakes that are scattered over it in every 

 direction, divided from each other by mountainous 

 ridges, clothed to their summits with giant pine trees 

 and the many varieties of hard woods peculiar to 

 these latitudes, alike giving beauty to the landscape 

 and affording food and shelter for every kind of 

 northern game. On the extensive flat meadows that 

 edge these lakes or form the margin of many of the 

 numerous noble rivers, in the hollows, ravines, and 

 hill-sides, was the moose deer's home to be found, his 

 choice of quarters being regulated by the changes of 

 the seasons. Portions of New Brunswick and Nova 

 Scotia are now favourite resorts of this giant deer; 

 but in northern New Hampshire, Vermont, and north- 

 eastern New York State, where, a quarter of a century 

 since, moose were plentiful, I doubt if at the present 



