FOREST LIFE. Ill 



hammers," all witliin sight of each other. Every one of them 

 had dug a hole down through the snow into the frozen earth, in 

 which they had thrust their noses, either for water to quench 

 the burning thirst produced by the poison, or to snuff some anti- 

 dote to the fatal drug. A bounty was obtained, on each, of ten. 

 dollars, besides their hides, making a fair job of it, as well as 

 ridding the neighborhood of an annoying enemy. The following 

 account of a wolf-chase will interest the reader : 



" During the winter of 1844, being engaged in the northern 

 part of Maine, I had much leisure to devote to the wild sports 

 of a new country. To none of these was I more passionately 

 addicted than that of skating. The deep and sequestered lakes 

 of this northern state, frozen by intense cold, present a wide field 

 to the lovers of this pastime. Often would I bind on my rusty 

 skates, and glide away up the glittering river, and wind each 

 mazy streamlet that flowed on toward the parent ocean, and feel 

 my very pulse bound with joyous exercise. It was during one 

 of these excursions that I met with an adventure which, even 

 at this period of my life, I remember with wonder and astonish- 

 ment. 



" I had left my friend's house one evening, just before dusk, 

 with the intention of skating a short distance up the noble Ken- 

 nebeck, which glided directly before the door. The evening was 

 fine and clear. The new moon peered from her lofty seat, and 

 cast her rays on the frosty pines that skirted the shore, until they 

 seemed the realization of a fairy scene. All Nature lay in a quiet 

 which she sometimes chooses to assume, while water, earth, and 

 air seemed to have sunken into repose. 



" I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when, coming to 

 a little stream which emptied into the larger, I turned in to ex- 

 plore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth met 

 overhead, and formed an evergreen archway, radiant with frost- 

 work. All was dark within ; but I was young and fearless, and 



