SPORT ON THE GANDER AND THE GULL 251 



trying with the advent of their new clothes to reconstruct 

 the songs of spring-time, and lilting sweetly among the 

 bushes. Occasionally a Hock of crossbills passed overhead 

 with their clinking cry, or a solitary pine grossbeak chanted 

 a low melody from the top of some spruce. Even the last 

 of the brilliant yellow-and-green wood warblers had not 

 vanished, and still chased the Hies in sheltered nooks. 



Everything in the air bespoke autumn. The slight night 

 frosts had imparted an activity and a potency to all things. 

 The delicious scent of the spruce or fir boughs over one's 

 head, or the odours of the wood fire that blazes up merrily, 

 are all more intense and satisfactory as the season advances, 

 and we sit round the blazing logs with appetites sharpened 

 by weeks of pure air and healthful exercise. This is Life 

 — and I am enjoying it. We have found the stags too ; we 

 are even camped in the "Sanctuary," where no man comes, 

 and that, though selfish, is none the less delightful. 



A party of jays rose from the river bank as we launched 

 the canoe, for they had already found some of the spoils 

 of yesterday, and were taking their share, carrying off the 

 meat in large mouthfuls, or bearing it in their feet to some 

 rotten pine in the forest where the winter stores were hidden, 

 from which retreat they uttered their mellifluous whistle. 

 Rain and wind had been prevalent for the past few days, 

 but to-day a clear sky and a glow in the east gave promise 

 of a fine day, certainly the worst weather for still-hunting, 

 but pleasant for man, who likes to sit and gaze into the 

 distance. 



We walked noiselessly to our first spy-tree, an old larch 

 about 50 feet high, and up this Joe climbed like a monkey, 

 whilst I pottered about and gazed in admiration at an immense 

 dropped horn I had discovered. On this horn were no 

 fewer than twenty-six points, and others had already been 



