180 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



For a number of miles we passed through heavily timbered 

 forest where shafts of sunlight threw patches of brilliant white 

 upon the woodland's winter carpet, and where gentle breezes 

 had played fantastically with the falling snow, for it was 

 heaped in all manner of remarkable forms. Here and there 

 long, soft festoons of white were draped about groups of 

 trees where the living stood interlocked with the dead. 

 Among the branches huge "snow-bosses" were seen, and 

 "snow-mushrooms" of wondrous shape and bulk were perched 

 upon logs and stumps. "Snow-caps" of almost unbelievable 

 size were mounted upon the smallest of trees, the slender 

 trunks of which seemed ready to break at any moment. It 

 was all so strangely picturesque that it suggested an enchanted 

 forest. 



Early that afternoon we came upon an Indian lodge hiding 

 in the woods, and from within came three little children. It 

 was then fully twenty below zero, yet the little tots, wish- 

 ing to watch the passing brigade, stood in the most unconcerned 

 way, holding each other by the hand, their merry eyes shining 

 from their wistful faces while their bare legs and feet were 

 buried in the snow. Though they wore nothing but little 

 blanket shirts, what healthy, happy children they appeared to 

 be! 



Then out upon a lake we swung where the wind-packed 

 snow made easy going. Here the heavy sleds slid along as if 

 loadless, and we broke into a run. On rounding a point we saw 

 a band of woodland caribou trot off the lake and enter the 

 distant forest. By the time we reached the end of the lake, 

 and had taken to the shelter of the trees, dusk was creeping 

 through the eastern woods and the rabbits had come out to 

 play. They were as white as the snow upon which they 

 ran helter-skelter after one another. Forward and backward 

 they bounded across the trail without apparently noticing 

 the dogs. Sometimes they passed within ten feet of us. The 



