ut the voyageurs and
fur-traders, while journeying through these inhospitable wilds, are
often but too delighted to get a dinner of wolf-meat. The ermine and
the little mouse were the only other creatures of the collection that
were deemed uneatable. As to the Arctic fox and the lynx, the flesh of
both these creatures is highly esteemed, and is white and tender, almost
as much so as the hares upon which they feed. The snowy owl too, the
jerfalcon, and the eagle, were looked upon as part of the larder--the
flesh of all being almost as good as that of the grouse. Had it been a
fishing eagle--such as the bald-head--the case would have been
different, for these last, on account of their peculiar food, taste rank
and disagreeable. But there was no danger of their falling in with a
fishing eagle at that place. These can only exist where there is _open_
water. Hence the cause of their annual migrations to the southward,
when the lakes and rivers of the fur countries become covered with their
winter ice.

Though Lucien remained quietly at the camp he was not without adventures
to keep him from wearying. While he was singeing his grouse his eye
happened to fall upon the shadow of a bird passing over the snow. On
looking up he saw a very large bird, nearly as big as an eagle, flying
softly about in wide circles. It was of a mottled-brown colour; but its
short neck and great round head told the naturalist at a glance that it
was a bird of the owl genus. It was the largest of the kind that Lucien
had ever seen, and was, in fact, the largest known in America--the
"great cinereous owl" (_Strix cinerea_). Now and then it would alight
upon a rock or tree, at the distance of an hundred yards or so from the
camp; where it would watch the operations of Lucien, evidently inclined
to help him in dissecting some of the animals. Whenever he took up his
gun and tried to approach within shot, it would rise into the air again,
always keeping out of range. Lucien was provoked at this--for he
wished, as a naturalist, to examine the bird, and for this purpose to
kill it, of course; but the owl seemed determined that he should do no
such thing.

At length, however, Lucien resolved upon a plan to decoy the creature
within shot. Taking up one of the grouse, he flung it out upon the snow
some thirty yards from the fire. No sooner had he done so, than the
owl, at sight of the tempting morsel, left aside both its shyness and
prudence, a