THE APPROACH OF WINTER 29 



as cowardly as that found farther south in the States is 

 certain, and yet it is a vicious and dangerous brute. 

 There were about here also a number of red foxes, and 

 these certainly preyed on the hares : for I found bones 

 and fragments of skin in the lairs of the foxes. 



Arriving on the ground where it was intended to pass 

 the night, my companions cleared away the snow, and 

 formed a dome-shaped hut about four feet high, capable 

 of containing the four of us. Loose snow being piled 

 over this structure, and a good fire made close to the 

 entrance, we had a Avarm and comfortable sleeping-place 

 for the night, and many other nights afterwards, in this, 

 or a similar, hut. No bedroom in an English house 

 could have been warmer. Of course we had our blankets 

 with us, and a thick bed of spruce boughs under us. 

 The hut, I should have said, was constructed of spruce 

 boughs ; and the trees I have loosely spoken of as pines, 

 were really the hemlock spruce (Abies Canadensis). The 

 forests of this tree presented a fine spectacle growing to 

 a height of sixty or seventy feet, and clustering in the 

 valleys or ravines between the hills. There were two 

 other kinds of spruce firs here : the red spruce, growing 

 in the swamps, and a species I could not identify, growing 

 in clusters only in very sheltered situations. 



The novelty of the situation, I suppose, together with 

 my over-tired condition, rendered me restless during the 

 night, and I slept but little. There was a slight breeze 

 blowing, and this caused a peculiarly sad yet musical 

 sound among the firs. But this was the only noise that 

 disturbed the stillness of the night. I listened intently, 

 hoping to hear the distant howling of the wolves ; but 

 no animal uttered its cry throughout the hours of dark- 

 ness. Towards morning a fox sneaked up, and seized a 

 hare skin. I threw my knife at it, but missed, and the 

 noise thereby occasioned aroused my companions, who 

 arose, though it Avas still quite dark, and prepared for the 

 labours of the day. 



