8 Wilderness Ways. 



so as to feed on the twigs and bark growing on either 

 side. Were it not for this curious provision, a single 

 severe winter would leave hardly a moose or a deer 

 alive in the woods ; for their hoofs are sharp and sink 

 deep, and with six feet of snow on a level they can 

 scarcely run half a mile outside their paths without 

 becoming hopelessly stalled or exhausted. 



It is this great tangle of paths, by the way, which 

 makes a deer or a moose yard ; and not the stupid 

 hole in the snow which is pictured in the geographies 

 and most natural history books. 



But Megaleep the Wanderer makes no such pro- 

 vision ; he depends upon Mother Nature to take care 

 of him. In summer he is brown, like the great tree 

 trunks among which he moves unseen. Then the 

 frog of his foot expands and grows spongy, so that 

 he can cling to the mountain-side like a goat, or 

 move silently over the dead leaves. In winter he 

 becomes a soft gray, the better to fade into a snow- 

 storm, or to stand concealed in plain sight on the 

 edges of the gray, desolate barrens that he loves. 

 Then the frog of his foot arches up out of the way ; 

 the edges of his hoof grow sharp and shell-like, so 

 that he can travel over glare ice without slipping, 

 and cut the crust to dig down for the moss upon 

 which he feeds. The hoofs, moreover, are very large 



