o where I had first seen it. It did not stop there, but
continued on, though not in its old tracks. It still walked in a
circle, but a much smaller one than before. Both, however, had a common
centre; and, as I noticed that the animal kept its eyes constantly
turned towards the centre, I felt satisfied that in that place would be
found the cause of its strange manoeuvring. I looked to the centre. At
first I could see nothing--at least nothing that might be supposed to
attract the cat. There was a very small bush of willows, but they were
thin. I could see distinctly through them, and there was no creature
there, either in the bush or around it. The snow lay white up to the
roots of the willows, and I thought that a mouse could hardly have found
shelter among them, without my seeing it from where I stood. Still I
could not explain the odd actions of the lynx, upon any other principle
than that it was in the pursuit of game; and I looked again, and
carefully examined every inch of the ground as my eyes passed over it.
This time I discovered what the animal was after. Close in to the
willows appeared two little parallel streaks of a dark colour, just
rising above the surface of the snow. I should not have noticed them
had there not been two of them, and these slanting in the same
direction. They had caught my eyes before, but I had taken them for the
points of broken willows. I now saw that they were the ears of some
animal, and I thought that once or twice they moved slightly while I was
regarding them. After looking at them steadily for a time, I made out
the shape of a little head underneath. It was white, but there was a
round dark spot in the middle, which I knew to be an eye. There was no
body to be seen. That was under the snow, but it was plain enough that
what I saw was the head of a hare. At first I supposed it to be a Polar
hare--such as we had just killed--but the tracks I had followed were not
those of the Polar hare. Then I remembered that the `rabbit' of the
United States also turns white in the winter of the Northern regions.
This, then, must be the American rabbit, thought I.

"Of course my reflections did not occupy all the time I have taken in
describing them. Only a moment or so. All the while the lynx was
moving round and round the circle, but still getting nearer to the hare
that appeared eagerly to watch it. I remembered how Norman had
manoeuvred to get within shot of the Polar h