me hours--find
themselves frozen in; and are compelled to perish of hunger, or devour
one another!

"It was now near night--for we had not reached the lake until late in
the day--and my companion proposed that we should leave farther
operations until the following morning. Of course I assented to the
proposal, and we betook ourselves to some pine-trees that grew on a high
bank near the shore, where we had determined to pass the night.

"There we kindled a roaring fire of pine-knots; but we had grown very
hungry, and I soon found that of the provisions I had brought, and upon
which I had already dined, there remained but a scanty fragment for
supper. This did not trouble my companion, who skinned several of the
`rats,' gave them a slight warming over the fire, and then ate them up
with as much _gout_ as if they had been partridges. I was hungry, but
not hungry enough for that; so I sat watching him with some
astonishment, and not without a slight feeling of disgust.

"It was a beautiful moonlight night, one of the clearest I ever
remember. There was a little snow upon the ground, just enough to cover
it; and up against the white sides of the hills could be traced the
pyramidal outlines of the pines, with their regular gradations of dark
needle-clothed branches. They rose on all sides around the lake,
looking like ships with furled sails and yards square-set.

"I was in a reverie of admiration, when I was suddenly aroused by a
confused noise, that resembled the howling and baying of hounds. I
turned an inquiring look upon my companion.

"`Wolves!' he replied, unconcernedly, chawing away at his `roast rat.'

"The howling sounded nearer and nearer; and then there was a rattling
among dead trees, and the quickly-repeated `crunch, crunch,' as of the
hoofs of some animal breaking through frozen snow. The next moment a
deer dashed past in full run, and took to the ice. It was a large buck,
of the `Caribou' or reindeer species (_Cervus tarandus_), and I could
see that he was smoking with heat, and almost run down.

"He had hardly passed the spot when the howl again broke out in a
continued strain, and a string of forms appeared from out the bushes.
They were about a dozen in all; and they were going at full speed like a
pack of hounds on the view. Their long muzzles, erect ears, and huge
gaunt bodies, were outlined plainly against the snowy ground. I saw
that they were wolves. They were white wolves, and of the