23« 



JPeguam 



jfieJF/sfier 



III 



and vanished in a flurry of snow. Pequam, 

 instead of going in at this hole, had tun- 

 neled out of sight for ten or fifteen feet 

 and had gone in at the opposite end of the 

 log, which was hidden by the deep snow 

 and bending evergreens. A cunning trick ; 

 for any one approaching the half-buried log 

 would see the inviting hole at the top but 

 find no track leading up to' it, and so would 

 conclude naturally that the den was. unoccu- 

 pied. Had we been an hour later we would 

 have found him heavy with sleep in the log; 

 but we had followed too hot on his trail. He 

 had barely settled himself down in his warm 

 den under the snow when our approach 

 startled him and he was off on another 

 crooked trail. 



We stopped where we were to "bile kit- 

 tle" ; for the cold of the northern forests is 

 killing in its intensity, and the moment you 

 cease action that moment Nature clamors 

 for fire and food with an insistence never 

 known elsewhere. Late in the afternoon, 

 after following the fresh trail through all its 

 doublings and windings, we came to where 



