IN THE VELVET. 139 

ing and freezing, he will creep over it, leaving very shoal foot- 
prints to mark his wanderings ; but start him up lively at sucha 
time, and this rabbit-like track changes to deep plunges and 
the longest jumps, as he leaps away. Some of the highest 
windfalls are no impediment to him; a nineteen foot fence 
would be just fun for him to skip over; twenty and twenty- 
five feet at a jump down a grade is just merry excercise for 
him. Hurry him quickly down the old logging road with a 
whoop and a yell, a crooked, leaning, half-down tree across 
his way twenty feet high to clear, and he leaves the snow ten 
or twelve feet this side, landing twenty or more beyond, 
without a quiver. So it is useless to chase this fellow thinking 
to run him down or tire him out, as he gets away so easily, 
leading you through the thickest swamps, often soon taking 
to the ice, when he trots away over the glaze like the wind, 
keeping his feet as easily as a sharp shod horse, the keen 
edges of his sharp, hard hoofs marking the ice like skates ; and 
as we have said, to see a dozen of them fairly flying over the 
ice, which is glistening in the sunlight, led by a gallant buck, 
all trotting square together and not a break up among them, 
is a gay and lively sight, 
