BIRCH BROWSINGS. 191 



to observations I have made in other parts of the 

 State. So different are the habits of birds in differ- 

 ent localities. 



As soon as it was fairly light we were up and 

 ready to resume our march. A small bit of bread- 

 and-butter and a swallow or two of whiskey was all 

 we had for breakfast that morning. Our supply of 

 each was very limited, and we were anxious to save 

 a little of both, to relieve the diet of trout to which 

 we looked forward. 



At an early hour we reached the rock where we 

 had parted with the guide, and looked around us into 

 the dense, trackless woods with many misgivings. 

 To strike out now on our own hook, where the way 

 was so blind and after the experience we had just had* 

 was a step not to be carelessly taken. The tops of 

 these mountains are so broad, and a short distance in 

 the woods seems so far, that one is by no means mas- 

 ter of the situation after reaching the summit. And 

 then there are so many spurs and offshoots and 

 changes of direction, added to the impossibility of 

 making any generalization by the aid of the eye, that 

 before one is aware of it he is very wide of his mark. 



I remembered now that a young farmer of my ac- 

 quaintance had told me how he had made a long day's 

 march through the heart of this region, without path 

 3r guide of any kind, and had hit his mark squarely. 

 He had been bark-peeling in Callikoon, a famous 

 country for bark, and, having got enough of it, he 

 desired to reach his home on Dry Brook without 



