trapper walked along the coast, sometimes on
snow-shoes when fields of snow-covered ice projected out to sea; at
other times on foot, with the snow-shoes slung over his back, when long
stretches of sand or shingly beach, from which the ice had been swept
away, presented themselves. This process of progression he continued
till night began to close upon him. Then he bethought him of encamping,
and retired to the neighbouring woods for the purpose.

The woods referred to consisted chiefly of pines, which fringed the base
of the precipitous hills by which that part of the Gulf of Saint
Lawrence is bordered. Here he selected the largest tree he could find,
and threw down his bundle of food and blankets under the flat spreading
branches thereof. Resting one of his snow-shoes against the stem of the
tree, he proceeded to dig a huge hole in the snow, using his other
snow-shoe as a shovel. The operation cost him much labour, for he had
to dig completely down to the ground, and the snow in the woods was
still between three and four feet deep. When a hole of ten feet long by
five broad was thus cleared to the bottom, the natural walls were raised
by the snow thrown out, to a total height of about six feet. This was
Bellew's bedchamber. The spreading pine-branches overhead were its
admirable roof. Next, the trapper cut down a young pine, with the
tender branches of which he covered the floor of his chamber to a depth
of ten or twelve inches. This was his mattress, and a soft, warm,
elastic one it was, as the writer of this narrative can testify from
personal experience. The head of the mattress rested against the stem
of the pine tree, and a convenient root thereof served Bellew for a
pillow. At the foot of the bed he had left the floor of his chamber
uncovered; this was his fireplace, and in the course of ten minutes or
so he cut down and chopped into billets enough of dry wood to fill it
with materials for a splendid fire. These being arranged, with a core
of dry moss and broken twigs in the centre, the patient man struck a
light by means of flint, steel, and tinder, and applied it. While the
first few tongues of fire were crackling in the core of moss, he spread
a thick blanket on his bed, and then stood up leisurely to fill his pipe
and dreamily to watch the kindling of the fire.

And this was a sight worth watching, for the change in the aspect of
affairs was little short of miraculous. Before the flames shot