SPORTS OF THE WINTER WOODS 305 



fire on it is to demonstrate the non-conductivity 

 of this ermine mantle of the woods. The fire will 

 burn long before it melts a hole through to the 

 ground beneath, and if the snow is fairly deep it 

 will remain unmelted beneath a gray mantle of 

 ashes after the fire is out. There is unquestion- 

 ably a primal joy in a fire thus built in the snow 

 of the deep woods. Wherever man sets up the 

 hearth there is home, and the first flare, the first 

 pungent whiff of wood smoke, touch a deep sense 

 of comfort and make the wayfarer at peace with 

 all the world. To toast bread upon a pointed 

 stick and to broil a bit of meat in the blaze is to 

 add a zest to the appetite that the wholesome 

 exercise in the keen air has stimulated. Except 

 as a zest one's luncheon does not need the heat at 

 such times. So potent is the oxygen of the keen 

 air and so deeply does it reach to the springs of 

 life that one may eat his food cold and raw as the 

 crows do and be satisfied and nourished. 



Sitting in the silence and the sun as the fire 

 smoulders to gray ashes one may take stock of 

 the birds of the woods by ear and eye. In the 

 still air all sounds carry far. The cawing of the 

 crows rings a mile across the tree tops, but these 

 are the only winter birds one may hear far in the 



