would have tripped me up, to a certainty, so I thought it wiser to stand still; his strength was plainly failing, and I knew he could not reach me. I fired the second barrel, he stopped, and staggered, stretched out his neck, the blood gushed in a stream from his mouth, his tongue protruded, then slowly, as if lying down to rest, he fell over into the snow. The dogs would not yet touch him; nor would even the Indians; they said that this was the most dangerous time he might struggle yet; so we watched cautiously till the large dark eye grew dim and glazed, and the sinewy limbs were stiffened out in death; then we approached and stood over our fallen foe.

When the excitement which had touched the savage chord of love of destruction, to be found in every nature, was over, I felt ashamed, guilty, self-condemned, like a murderer: the snow defiled with the red stain; the meek eye, a few moments before bright with healthy life, now a mere filmy ball; the vile dogs, that had not dared to touch him while alive, licked up the stream of blood, and fastened on his heels. I was thoroughly disgusted with myself, and with the tame and cruel sport.

The Indians knocked down a decayed tree, rubbed

up some of the dry bark in their hands, applied a match to it, and in a few minutes made a splendid fire close by the dead moose; a small space was trampled down, the sapins laid as usual, for a seat, from whence I inspected the skinning and cutting up of the carcase; a part of the proceeding which occupied nearly two hours. The hide and the most valuable parts were packed on the tobogins, and the remnant of the noble brute was left for the wolves we then returned to the caban.

The Indians were very anxious that I should go in pursuit of the third moose, which I positively declined, partly because I was very tired, and partly because I would have gone twice the distance to avoid such another murder. The Captain arrived in about an hour; he had also killed his moose, but after a much longer chace. The kidney and marrow were cooked for supper, and the remainder, except what the dogs got, was buried in the snow; the craven brutes ate and fought till they could no longer growl, and then laid down torpidly outside to sleep.

That night there was a thaw; our snow roof melted, and the water continued dropping on us till we were thoroughly wet and uncomfortable. In the place where we were encamped there were a great number of birch and pine trees; at this time of

the year the former are covered with loose bark, hanging in shreds over trunk and branches: this is highly inflammable, burning with a bright red flame, and a smell like camphor; the Indians, by rolling it up tightly, make torches, which give a strong and lasting light. We determined on an illumination with these materials, to celebrate the events of the day; and, when the night fell, dark as pitch, we seized torches, made the Indians do the same, and started off in different directions through the wood, firing all the birch trees at the stem, as we passed. I do not think I ever saw a more splendid sight than our labours produced; fifty or sixty large trees, in a circle of a quarter of a mile, each with a blaze of red light running up from the trunk to the loftiest branches, twisting through the gloomy tops of the fir trees, and falling off in flakes, spinning round in the air, and lighting up the white snow beneath the dark arches of the forest, and the darker sky above. We wandered away still further and further, till the voices of the Indians, still spreading our glorious illumination, sounded faint in the distance. The fires immediately about the caban had burned out, and were succeeded by a darkness more profound than before, and we had no small difficulty, and