08 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



To our disgust it still rained when we awoke next 

 morning ; the wind was in the same direction, and the 

 same gloomy sky promised no better things for us that 

 day. The old Indian, however, drew on his moccasins, 

 and started off to the l:arren by himself to take a survey 

 f of the country whilst the oreakfast was preparing, and I 



6 gloomily threw myself back on the blanket for another 



• snooze. After an hour or so's absence, Joe returned, and 



I sat down to his breakfast (we had finished ours, and were 



I smoking), looking very wet and excited. " Two moose 



'^ pass round close to camp last night," said he ; " I find 



i; their tracks on barren. They gone down the little valley 



1: towards the lake, and I see their tracks again in the 



j: Avoods quite fresh. You get ready, Capten ; I have notion 



V we see moose to-day. I t-ee some more tracks on the 



if barren going southward ; however, we try the tracks 



!■' near camp first, — maybe we find them, if not started by 



'! the smell of the fire." 



We were soon at it, and left our camp with hopeful 

 hearts and in Indian file, stepping lightly in each other's 



■ tracks over the elastic moss. Everything was in first-rate 

 order for creeping on the moose ; the fallen leaves did 



!'. not rustle on the ground, and even dead sticks bent with- 



out snapping, and we progressed rapidly and noiselessly 



■ as cats towards the lake. Presently we came on the 

 tracks, here and there deeply impressed in a bare spot of 



\ soil, but on the moss hardly discernible except to the 



■ Indian's keen vision. They were going down the valley; 

 I. a little brook coursed through it towards the lake, and 

 III from the mossy banks sprung graceful bushes of moose- 



'' wood and maple, on the young shoots of which the moose 



had been feeding as they passed. The tracks showed that 



