Trail and Camp-Fire 



physical recuperation ; so that I have not 

 been in condition to undertake great efforts. 

 My best day's tramp was about twenty-five 

 miles. Of course I am speaking, be it under- 

 stood, of the season of the year when it is still 

 legal to kill game, during which time the snow 

 is soft, except when packed by the wind upon 

 the open surface of lakes. Of the barbarous 

 and unsportsmanlike practice of "crusting" I 

 know nothing by experience. 



I write this because I have so often been 

 asked by my fellgw-sportsmen whether the art 

 of snow-shoeing were not so difficult as to 

 stand in the way of a winter camping-trip. I 

 think this idea arises partly from the fact that 

 some writers have mistaken their own lack of 

 skill, or want of competent instruction, or 

 perhaps their pig-headedness, for an inherent 

 difficulty in the sport they describe ; and I 

 think I have even detected occasional traces 

 of a desire to magnify their own exploits by 

 exaggerating the difficulty of what they have 

 done ; but these exaggerations are to be de- 

 plored when they tend to discourage others 

 from wholesome enjoyments. But to return 

 to our day's journey. 



This was the last day of the open season ; 

 130 



