and the Maritime Provinces. 57 



one, but I received the congratulations of my friends with much greater 

 equanimity than I would have felt had I killed the deer in any other way 

 than by ' jack-hunting.' " 



" But the Judge is almost asleep," I exclaimed, " and as it is growing 

 late, we had better 'turn in.'" 



My companions assented to my proposition, and soon we were 

 stretched upon our blankets which were laid upon our bed of boughs. 



For awhile I continued awake, listening to the music of the falls, the 

 quavering cry of a loon on the lake, the melancholy song of the whip-poor- 

 will, and the hoarse hooting of a great-horned owl that was flitting about 

 our camp. My first night in the woods is usually a somewhat wakeful 

 one, and the various sounds peculiar to the wilderness always attract my 

 attention. 



Often have I heard the beautiful song of the white-throated sparrow or 

 Peabody bird, and the thrush late at night, and more than once have I been 

 startled by the plaintive scream of the black bear, and the uncanny cry of 

 the porcupine near my tent. Every sound made by the stealthy move- 

 ments of the denizens of the forest seems greatly magnified in the night, 

 and there is to me an indescribable fascination in listening to them. 

 Sometimes they are weird and difficult to recognize. On one occasion 

 that I well remember, I was kept awake a long time by what seemed the 

 clanking of a chain near my camp. It was a sound that I could not 

 understand or account for, and after awhile it made me nervous. Occa- 

 sionally a stick would crack, and the movements of some animal in the 

 thicket near by could be heard in connection with the rattling of the chain. 



At last, unable to go to sleep, I aroused my guide who, after listening 

 a moment, said it was " a dratted old lynx that had been hanging around 

 that locality for a week or more " ; its foot had been caught in a steel trap 

 to which was attached a small chain which dragged behind him as he 

 moved about, and it was the rattle of this that had kept me awake. " The 

 critter is after some of our venison," said the guide, as he turned over for 

 another nap, " but he can't get it." 



The heavy breathing of my companions, the Judge and the Doctor, 

 announced that they were asleep, and in a short time I joined them in the 

 land of dreams. 



