WINTER ANIMALS. 
301 
one to four inches in diameter, which had been gnawed 
by mice the previous winter, — a Norwegian winter for 
them, for the snow lay long and deep, and they were 
obliged to mix a large proportion of pine bark with their 
other diet. These trees were alive and apparently flour¬ 
ishing at mid-summer, and many of them had grown a 
foot, though completely girdled; but after another win¬ 
ter such were without exception dead. It is remarka¬ 
ble that a single mouse should thus be allowed a whole 
pine tree for its dinner, gnawing round instead of up and 
down it; but perhaps it is necessary in order to thin 
these trees, which are wont to grow up densely. 
The hares (Lepus Americanus ) were very familiar. 
One had her form under my house all winter, separated 
from me only by the flooring, and she startled me each 
morning by her hasty departure when I began to stir, — 
thump, thump, thump, striking her head against the floor 
timbers in her hurry. They used to come round my 
door at dusk to nibble the potato parings which I had 
thrown out, and were so nearly the color of the ground 
that they could hardly be distinguished when still. 
Sometimes in the twilight I alternately lost and recov¬ 
ered sight of one sitting motionless under my window. 
When I opened my door in the evening, off they would 
go with a squeak and a bounce. Near at hand they 
only excited my pity. One evening one sat by my door 
two paces from me, at first trembling with fear, yet un¬ 
willing to move; a poor wee thing, lean and bony, with 
ragged ears and sharp nose, scant tail and slender paws. 
It looked as if Nature no longer contained the breed of 
nobler bloods, but stood on her last toes. Its large eyes 
appeared young and unhealthy, almost dropsical. I 
took a step, and lo, away it scud with an elastic spring 
