The tracks we saw were old ones, the animals
having passed there several days previously. I would not have it
supposed that the moose are abundant in any portion of this
wilderness. They have come to be few and far between, and exceedingly
wary at that. I could hear of none having been killed the present
season; but that there are some left, as well as bears, and wolves,
and panthers, the tracks we saw gave unmistakable evidence.
We saw no appearance of trout in this lake, or in the outlet of it
above the upper chain of ponds. The stream swarmed with chub and dace,
a rare circumstance with the streams of this region. Towards evening,
we saw numbers of little grey wood rabbits, hopping around among the
dense undergrowth on the ridge where our tents were situated,
squatting themselves down and cocking up their long ears, as they
paused occasionally to examine the strange visitors who had come among
them. They were very tame, not seeming to regard our presence as a
thing of much danger to them.
"Seeing those rabbits," remarked Smith, "reminds me of an anecdote of
my boyhood, which at the time occasioned me an amount of mortification
equalled only by the amusement it affords me, when I think of it in
after years. On my father's farm was a bush field, a place that had
been chopped and burned over, and then left to grow up with bushes,
making an excellent cover for wild wood rabbits.
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