THE DUSKY GROUSE, 144 
of the night. When Smith had dined, he threw himself 
on the bed with his boots on, and this elicited the remark 
from the doctor that nothing but a bear would go to bed 
with its boots on. 
“*T never knew a bear wore boots,” said Smith calmly, 
as he turned over on his side and commenced snoring so 
remarkably well that he caused everyone to laugh heartily. 
We rolled ourselves up in our blankets in a short time 
after, and managed to sleep fairly well, despite the howl- 
ing and screaming of the nocturnal animals, until the 
cook awoke us long before daylight next morning. After 
a bath in the lake we returned to camp and feasted on 
the delicacies placed in the ground oven the previous 
day, and thoroughly enjoyed them, for the roast bear was 
excellent, though a little coarse; and as for the deer 
heads, all I can say is that a person must eat them in the. 
wilderness to appreciate their gastronomic qualities. 
When breakfast was over we plunged into the forest, and. 
after marching about a mile the dogs routed a stag, but 
he escaped by heading for the hills and seeking refuge in 
the lake. Knowing that the hounds would not return 
for some time, we commenced still hunting, and succeed- 
ed in killing two deer and a bay lynx in the course of an 
hour. The latter animal was found on the lower limb of 
a huge pine, and from the mass of feathers on the ground 
we inferred that it had been feeding on grouse during the 
night or early morning. It was the feathers, in fact, that 
had revealed its position and brought it to an untimely 
end, and caused Smith to indulge in one of the most 
atrocious puns he was capable of uttering, for he said 
that the grouse and the lynx formed a concatenation. 
The doctor and Mr. Jones having decided to take the 
deer to camp, Smith and myself continued on our way, 
as we intended to devote our attention to the birds. We 
took the precaution to blaze the trees with our hunting 
knives as we went along, for fear of losing the trail, and 
