Ill 



A HUNT IN THE LAURENTIDES 



TN the early afternoon of a crisp autumn day toward the 

 1 latter part of September, 1903, the Great Northern Rail- 

 way of Canada deposited Howe, two Indian guides, and me at 

 the small French village of Saint Elizabeth, Quebec. We were 

 bound on a moose-hunt, and were to start in canoes from a 

 backwoods settlement, sixty miles to the north, called Saint 

 Michel des Saints. A habitant driver and two Quebec carts, 

 each drawn by a small, sturdy stallion, awaited us at the station 

 platform, and climbing into the vehicles with what little bag- 

 gage we had brought with us, we rattled away to the north 

 along dusty roads. This country^ was covered with poplar and 

 maple, and in the bright afternoon sunshine we were treated 

 to every shade from yellow to scarlet in the foliage, recently 

 touched by the September frosts. 



Short distances apart, quaint, old-fashioned gabled houses 

 with thatched roofs, and surrounded by green fields, marked 

 the homesteads of the French inhabitants. This country was 

 settled a long time ago, and the farmers are very conservative 

 and far behind the times. Only a few speak English, and it is 

 said that some of the more ignorant believe that the country 

 still belongs to France. By dark we had covered the twenty- 

 five miles to the village of Saint Jean de Matha, and put up 

 for the night at a miserable little French hotel, where cleanli- 

 ness and the English language were unknown. During the 

 next day we drove steadily northward under threatening skies, 



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