FOREST SPORTS. 
233 
dripping on the biscuits, which are to serve thereafter as plat¬ 
ters for the savory broil. 
Then comes the merry meal, seasoned by the hunter’s Spar¬ 
tan sauce, fatigue and hunger ; and when the appetites of all are 
satiate with forest fare, succeed the moderate cup of Cognac, 
Ferintosh, or Old Jamaica,—moderate, because the man is not, 
who can drink hard to-night, and walk hard, let alone shooting 
well, to-morrow,—the composing fumes of the hunter’s pipe, 
replenished with “ the Indian weed that briefly bums,” and such 
yarns as are spun nowhere, unless it be in a forest camp, com¬ 
plete the tale. 
Then while night is yet young, the fire is replenished, and 
wrapped snugly in their warm blankets, with their feet to the 
glowing embers, and their heads under the lee of the snow¬ 
banks, the party lay them down to rest, under the azure canopy, 
and sleep more soundly, and awake more freshly, than princes 
who have courted rest on beds of down and purple. 
Awake, while the stars are yet bright, and the air keen and 
cold, the brook, which last night tempered the goblets, this 
morning laves the brows, and replenishes the kettles; and a brief 
early breakfast precedes the quick tramp through the morning’s 
gloaming. 
Thereafter, a short halt at noon, and a council—for they have 
neared the “ yard,” and must manoeuvre now to get well to lee¬ 
ward of it, for if a single Moose snuff the air tainted by “ the 
human,” farewell to sport to-day. 
If all go rightly, if no tyro tread upon a cracking branch, or 
speak unseasonably, or show himself in his eagerness ; if, having 
laid aside all impediments, cast aside packs, unharnessed tobog- 
gins, unbuckled snow-shoes—inapt machines for crawling ser¬ 
pentine over the soft snow, and among thick-set cedar saplings— 
the sportsmen can worm their way up, unheard and unsus¬ 
pected, with the cocked rifle ready, to a spot which commands 
the yard, beautiful is the scene to witness, and magnificent the 
sport. The gigantic bulls are beheld within point-blank range, 
flapping their huge ears lazily, or scratching their heads with 
their great cloven feet, or licking their glossy coats, like cattle 
