200 A SPORTING PARADISE 



" The Canada lynx," says Stone, " is the 

 real lynx of all the North, that mysterious creature 

 which the ancients believed possessed the power 

 of seeing through all substances, whether opaque 

 or not to other eyes. 



u The Canada lynx is a savage, flat-faced 

 beast, with enormous legs and paws out of all 

 proportion to the size of its body, and absurd 

 tail. Its soft fur of clouded grey is so blended 

 with various shades of pale buff and tawny as 

 to be extremely difficult to distinguish in any 

 light or against almost any background : even 

 in the cruel publicity of a barred cage, it is still 

 indistinct, and one might well fancy the cage 

 empty at a little distance. They hold on 

 to life grimly through long cold nights in the 

 Northern forests, believing somehow that at last 

 spring will be in the woods again, bringing flight- 

 birds from the South, and awakening the small 

 creatures that sleep all the winter down deep in 

 the frozen earth where the most desperate lynx 

 can never reach them. Until then, the lynxes 

 must hunt as best they can, tireless, and in 

 splendid health, and quite unconscious of the 

 cold, but oh, so hungry ! 



" In the Northern woods the lynx travels with 



