ld
soon toss over any stone-heap they might build. On the whole it was
better that one of the four should remain by the camp; and Lucien, who
cared less about hunting than any of them, willingly agreed to be the
one.

Their arrangements were soon completed, and the three hunters set out.
They did not go straight towards the place where Norman had found the
deer upon the preceding day, but took a cross-cut over the hills. This
was by Norman's advice, who guided himself by the wind--which had not
changed since the previous day. He knew that the caribou in feeding
always travel _against_ the wind; and he expected therefore to find them
somewhere in the direction from which it was blowing. Following a
course, which angled with that of the wind, they kept on, expecting soon
to strike the trail of the herd.

Meanwhile Lucien, left to himself, was not idle. He had to prepare the
flesh of the different animals, so as to render it fit to be carried
along. Nothing was required farther than to skin and cut them up.
Neither salting nor drying was necessary, for the flesh of one and all
had got frozen as stiff as a stone, and in this way it would keep during
the whole winter. The wolf was skinned with the others, but this was
because his fine skin was wanted. His flesh was not intended to be
eaten--although only a day or two before any one of the party would have
been glad of such a meal.

Not only the Indians, but 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 remai