Intense Cold i?i the Clearings and the Forest. 101 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Lumberer's Camp Life and Hospitality — Forest Fires — Barbarous 

 Mode of Hunting the Moose — Moose Yard — Moose Hunt — Diffi- 

 culties of Forest Travelling — Natural Decay of Forest Trees — Lost in 

 the Wilderness. 



DURING March, when alternate thaws and frosty nights 

 prevail, I started for the wilderness with a woodman 

 well versed in his craft. Although not a hunter in the 

 proper sense of the term, he was known far and wide as a 

 famous moose slayer, — that is, instead of gun or rifle he pre- 

 ferred his axe, with which he had felled many a helpless moose 

 when struggling through the hard frozen snow. Having 

 placed our necessaries on a small hand sleigh, we pushed 

 through the forest by devious pathways, and arrived at a 

 wood camp, after a fatiguing march of upwards of twelve 

 miles on snow shoes. It is a common remark that the 

 climate of the forest in winter is far healthier than the open 

 country, and no doubt such is the case, for the reason that the 

 extremes of cold are not intensified by wind. Thus often 

 when sleighing over a bleak country, with a north-wester 

 blowing fiercely, when the horses look as if dusted over with 

 chalk, and our furs and whiskers are thickly powdered, we 

 experience a delightful change the moment the woods come 

 between us and the piercing blasts. The log or lumber 

 camps are all constructed on much the same model, being 

 composed of pine trunks placed lengthwise, one above the 

 other, with a sloping roof covered over with pine boughs and a 

 thick layer of snow. The fire is in the centre, whilst around it 



