66 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



leave the surveyed road. My friend bore on his back 

 a sack in which to place his long-neglected traps, 

 while I carried my trusty ten-bore double gun, loaded 

 by request with ball in one barrel, and buck-shot in 

 the other. Our route at first was through a dense 

 cedar swamp, exceedingly irregular on the surface, 

 while the undergrowth was so close that it was with 

 difficulty parted ; a thick coating of moss was under 

 foot, so spongy and full of water that if we remained 

 stationary for a few seconds we would be over the 

 insteps in water. Nevertheless, the tracks of the 

 American swamp-hare were innumerable ; an animal, 

 by-the-bye, which is very similar to the Scotch blue 

 hare, some authorities going so far as to say they are 

 the same species, slightly changed by climate and dif- 

 ferent habits of life, resulting from the dissimilar 

 localities in which they are found. 



A blazed path was all we had for direction, but as 

 both were in the full vigour of manhood, we steadily 

 progressed. Several times we flushed the Canadian 

 spruce grouse, but as my projectiles were not suited 

 to this stamp of game, and my companion continually 

 kept reminding me that larger might be expected, I 

 forbore troubling them. 



From the swamp we got on drier soil, very rocky, 

 and densely wooded with pine, the trees increasing 

 in stature as we ascended, till we were surrounded 

 with such glorious pines as might one day form, 

 without discredit, the main-mast of a line-of-battle 

 ship. 



Upwards, like the youth who shouted " Excelsior," 

 we kept ascending, but we had not the maiden to 

 warn us, whose warning I doubt not, unless she had 



