252 



Deer-Hunting on the An Sable. 



A TORCH OF THE AU SABLE. 



secure one that had lodged somewhere in the drift-wood. We 

 found it, by the light of the birch -bark. As we made our way along 

 the bank, our backwoodsman would pick out here and there a large 

 white birch, and apply a match to the curling ringlets of bark at the 

 foot of its trunk. In a minute the whole stem of the tree was in a 

 roaring blaze, that lit up the river-bank all round about and made 

 the great cedars look like gigantic skeletons. Each birch was a brill- 

 iant spectacle, while it burned in a crackling, sparkling column of 

 flame, sending showers of sparks through the forest, and then dying 

 out in an angry red and a cloud of murky smoke. Our deer was 

 found, dressed, and hung up on a dead cedar, out of the reach of 

 predatory animals ; and we went home to camp by the light of our 

 lanterns. 



