IN TIMBER AND BRtfLfiE. 221 



The head of the lake was fed by a sluggish stream which 

 rolled through a wild and marshy valley, the heights on 

 either side being clothed with grey phantom woods of dead 

 trees that had suffered years before from fire, and now 

 rimmed in parts about the lower escarpments with young 

 birch. 



Leaving the canoe at the lake-head, we pressed for- 

 ward. The whole valley was covered with sign of caribou, 

 most of it, unfortunately, over a month old. Had i been 

 in Newfoundland, I should have concluded that ten or a 

 dozen animals had been summering in the thickets and the 

 alder-swamps. More than once we cut the yesterday's 

 trail of two animals, doubtless those which had so nearly 

 fallen to the prowess of the cook. 



All the morning we walked from height to height, and 

 from vantage-ground to vantage-ground, carefully examin- 

 ing the wide expanses which stretched beneath us. The 

 country was beautifully open, and we saw many horns 

 which had been cast in previous years. These were nearly 

 perfect, not much chewed or nibbled, as would have been 

 the case with similar specimens in Newfoundland. But of 

 living caribou we failed to catch the remotest glance. To 

 make a long story short, we travelled to our hearts' con- 

 tent, finding at least an exhilaration in rapid movement, 

 which we should hardly have believed possible had we not 

 recently spent wearisome days watching the empty marshes 

 about Lac Des Neiges. 



The morning and the afternoon were eventless, except for 

 one brief moment when, as we neared the summit of a high 

 hill which we had ascended to reconnoitre the lie of the 

 country, we came upon a pair of cock grouse drumming 

 among the dead trees. As it was unlikely at the altitude we 

 had attained that the noise of a shot could do any harm, 

 we decapitated both, and they formed a very welcome 

 addition to our larder. 



