110 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



dropping it in the distant woods where it is seldom found. So 

 the women took to setting steel traps on the ends of upright 

 poles upon which they judged the owls would alight, as these 

 birds are much given to resting upon the tips of "ram-pikes," 

 and in that way they had caught several. 



One evening early in November, after a hard day's travel 

 through a big storm of wet, clinging snow, we sat by the fire 

 in Oo-koo-hoo's lodge, and happily commented on the fact 

 that we had got everything in good shape for the coming of 

 winter. Next morning, when we went outside, we found that 

 everything was covered with a heavy blanket of clinging snow, 

 and the streams and the lake beginning to freeze over. We 

 found, also, to our amazement that a big bull-moose had been 

 standing on the bank of Muskrat Creek and watching the smoke 

 rising from our lodges as the fires were lighted at sunrise just 

 as I have shown in my painting. 



After a hurried breakfast, we three men set out in pursuit of 

 the moose which we overtook within a mile, and then there was 

 meat to haul on sleds to our camp. That day the temperature 

 fell rapidly, and by night the little streams were strongly frozen, 

 and around the lake the ice stretched far out from the shore. 

 So we gathered up the canoes and stored them for the winter 

 upside down upon stages made for the purpose; and that night 

 before we turned in we saw, for the first time that season, 

 Akwutinoowe "The Freezing Moon." 



