DEER-STALKING. 185 



shall get the deer, his nervous anxiety about weather, 

 mist, and food has quite vanished, and he cheerfully 

 sets to work to select a camp for the night. 



Before long, he informs me that he has found a 

 splendid " night-quarter " for me, and takes me to 

 a large boulder rock with a hole under it, into 

 which, by close imitation of the movements of a 

 snake, I can contrive to crawl, and where, lying 

 on my back, the end of my nose just touches the 

 roof. There is an uncomfortable affinity to sepul- 

 ture in this, but as it has now, alas ! begun to rain 

 outside, I must not be particular. My men tear 

 up heavy mats of dwarf juniper and reindeer moss, 

 with which they almost totally cover themselves, 

 and we sleep or doze as best we can. It is but 

 a very few hours ; very slowly, though, do they 

 pass. At last, however, they do pass. 



" Night wanes, the mists around the mountain curled 

 Melt into morn, and light awakes the world/ 



With the earliest dawn we emerge from our graves, 



