LIFTING THE TKAPS. 215 



ary for a few seconds we would be over the insteps in 

 water. Nevertheless, the tracks of the American hare 

 were innumerable ; an animal, by the bye, Avhich I be- 

 lieve very closely allied to the Scotch mountain hare, 

 slightly changed by climate and different habits of 

 life, caused by the very dissimilar localities in which 

 they are found. A blazed path was all we had for 

 direction, but as both were in the full vigor of man- 

 hood, we steadily progressed. Several times we flushed 

 the Canadian willow grouse, but as my projectiles 

 were not suited to this stamp of game, and ray com- 

 panion continually kept informing me that larger 

 might be looked for, I forbore troubling them. 



From the swamp we got on drier soil, very rocky, 

 and densely wooded with pine,— such glorious pine- 

 trees as might one day form, without discredit, the 

 mainmast of a three-decker. 



Upward, like the youth who shouted " Excelsior," 

 we kept ascending, but Ave had not the maiden to warn 

 us, but whose warning I doubt not, unless she had 

 been unusually pretty, would have been disregarded. 

 Soon the walking became climbing, and after an 

 hour's clambering- the summit of the ridg:e was reach- 

 ed. Here the first trap was lifted, and at intervals of 

 two hundred yards or so, according to the nature of 



