dogs are called, for most of
the brutes were the usual sharp-nosed, heavy-coated mongrels that in
the Strong Woods Country go by the name of _giddes_; some, however, had
been sired by wolves.

The track-beater's snowshoes, which were the largest used by any of the
brigade, were Wood Cree "hunting shoes" and measured nearly six feet in
length. The other men wore Chipewyan "tripping shoes" about three feet
long--the only style of Canadian snowshoes that are made in "rights and
lefts."

For a number of miles we passed through heavily timbered forest where
shafts of sunlight threw patches of brilliant white upon the woodland's
winter carpet, and where gentle breezes had played fantastically with
the falling snow, for it was heaped in all manner of remarkable forms.
Here and there long, soft festoons of white were draped about groups of
trees where the living stood interlocked with the dead. Among the
branches huge "snow-bosses" were seen, and "snow-mushrooms" of wondrous
shape and bulk were perched upon logs and stumps. "Snow-caps" of
almost unbelievable size were mounted upon the smallest of trees, the
slender trunks of which seemed ready to break at any moment. It was
all so strangely picturesque that it suggested an enchanted forest.

Early that afternoon we came upon an Indian lodge hiding in the woods,
and from within came three little children. It was then fully twenty
below zero, yet the little tots, wishing to watch the passing brigade,
stood in the most unconcerned way, holding each other by the hand,
their merry eyes shining from their wistful faces while their bare legs
and feet were buried in the snow. Though they wore nothing but little
blanket shirts, what healthy, happy children they appeared to be!

Then out upon a lake we swung where the wind-packed snow made easy
going. Here the heavy sleds slid along as if loadless, and we broke
into a run. On rounding a point we saw a band of woodland caribou trot
off the lake and enter the distant forest. By the time we reached the
end of the lake, and had taken to the shelter of the trees, dusk was
creeping through the eastern woods and the rabbits had come out to
play. They were as white as the snow upon which they ran
helter-skelter after one another. Forward and backward they bounded
across the trail without apparently noticing the dogs. Sometimes they
passed within ten feet of us. The woodland seemed to swarm with them,
and no wonder, for it was t