145 Tre Aroostook Woops. 

we have said, in dark days or stormy. weather comes in so 
handy if you wish to hasten along, and when we strike these 
spotted trees in our wanderings it seems like finding true 
friends. Here after travelling a mile or so, we again see the 
tracks of our itinerant friend, the buck, still true to his course 
to the south. We follow it as it leads over the ridge on our 
route. For a long way he picks his path where the wood is 
most open, which is like them, if not hurried; then coming 
to the thick swamp he dislikes the tangle as well as ourselves 
and takes advantage of an old lumber road leading westerly. 
Down this he moves along in even, measured steps, showing 
he is journeying (not feeding along slowly) and is keeping 
» the roadway beside the swamp until hard wood and open 
growth appearing, he turns south once more, up and over 
another ridge of open hard wood growth. He is keeping on 
his way to the large south barren some miles beyond, as is to 
be seen by his always turning again in that southerly direc- 
tion, after passing beside or around the rough chances; also 
by his not stopping to take a bite from the young growth or 
stepping aside at any place, to feed upon the moss he is pass- 
ing. And thus they wander, from one bleak barren to 
another, preferring the moss that grows upon the dwarfed 
trees, and the moss, lichen and many plants growing at their 
feet, as they travel over these always moist, boggy places, and 
in going their rounds, vary but little each time in their 
course, excepting to pass upon one side of a ridge or swamp 
on one trip, and the next time choosing its opposite. 
Satisfied the buck is not a stranger on our hunting grounds 
and having his feeding places and route of travel to and fro, 
well located, we shall remember him among our neighbors, 
remembering his stately head and fine horns, as entitling him 
