Snow Shoes and Canoes | Page 9

bent over it. Its
genial warmth imparted new life to my chilled limbs and body. Then,
sitting down with my feet so close that I almost singed my stockings, I
gradually thawed my shoes. How comfortable they felt when I again
put them on!
I now began to feel the pangs of hunger, for I had taken nothing since
the previous morning. Food I must have at all costs. I even glanced at
my poor horse with wolfish eyes.
"I must eat it, if I can get nothing else," I said to myself; but then again
I thought, "By what means shall I reach the fort? I cannot trudge on
foot all the distance through the deep snow. I must let my horse live. It
would sorely grieve me to have to kill him."
Thoroughly warmed, I got up with the intention of pushing into the
wood and trying to knock over some bird or small beast. There were
few young birds at that season not well able to fly out of my way, and
the animals of the forest were likely to have been driven under shelter
by the snowstorm.
I still had the stick which had served me to mount the hill and make my
way over the snow. I had left my pistols in my holsters. I mention this
to account for my not now having them. My only weapons, therefore,
were my long hunting-knife and this stout stick.
I was, I knew, more likely to find some animals deep in the wood than
on the borders, as they would have gone there for shelter. As I went
along I anxiously examined every tree I passed in search of birds or the

traces of squirrels or any other of the smaller inhabitants of the woods.
Now and then a squirrel would look out of its hole, and on seeing me
would be off to the tree-top. Birds were rare, and being perfectly silent
at this season, their notes did not betray their whereabouts. The evening
was drawing on. I considered whether I could manage to set any traps.
It would take time to construct them, and I was starving.
As I wandered along, I found myself again near the borders of the
wood with a thick bush near me. At that moment I caught sight of an
animal of nearly three feet in length, which I at once recognised as a
"peeshoo," as the French Canadians call it, though properly
denominated the Canadian lynx. Its fur was of a dark grey, freckled
with black. It had powerful limbs, and thick, heavily-made feet. It was
still when I first caught sight of it, but presently it commenced a
succession of bounds with its back slightly arched, all the feet coming
to the ground at the same moment.
Instead of moving forward in a direct line, I observed that it was
making a large circle, which it gradually decreased. I concealed myself
behind the bush, hoping that it would come near enough to give me a
chance of rushing out and striking it a blow on the back, when I could
at once have killed it. With intense interest, therefore, I watched its
proceedings. I now observed a small animal which I saw was a hare in
the centre of the circle it was forming. The little creature,
terror-stricken, seemed unable to run off, though, being a fleeter animal
than the lynx, it might easily have escaped.
The lynx approached nearer and nearer the hare, keeping one of its
sharp eyes fixed on it all the time, when, having got sufficiently near to
reach its prey, it made two bounds, and the hare the next moment was
dead.
I was on the point of rushing out to secure, as I hoped, both the lynx
and the hare, when I saw a dark shadow cast on the ground, and,
looking up, I caught sight of a golden eagle, which must have come
from the far-off Rocky Mountains, in the act of pouncing down on the
lynx; the latter, seeing its enemy, dropped the hare and prepared to

defend itself and prevent its prey being carried off. In spite of the large
size of the lynx, the eagle swooped downwards to the attack, striking
with its powerful beak the quick-sighted animal on the back, into which
it fixed its sharp talons.
The eagle had, however, not so firm a hold as to prevent the lynx from
freeing itself; then with its formidable claws it sprang at the bird,
tearing some of the feathers from its breast.
On this the eagle rose into the air, and circling several times round, a
short distance above the earth, prepared undauntedly again to descend
and renew the combat. The lynx, watching every movement, as it saw
the