"Most gladly, Master Hendrick, will I do your bidding; but as we don't
know what course to steer, won't we be apt to go astray?"
"There is no fear of that, captain. See you yonder bluff with the bush
on the top of it?"
"Where away, Master Hendrick? D'ye mean the one lyin' to wind'ard o'
that cliff shaped like the side of a Dutch galliot?"
"The same. It is not more than a quarter of a mile off--make straight
for that. You'll be sure to fall in with game of some sort between this
and that. Wait there till we come up, for we shall breakfast there.
You can keep yourself warm by cutting wood and kindling a fire."
Rather pleased than otherwise with this little bit of pioneer work that
had been given him to do, Trench stepped boldly into the snow, carrying
his cross-bow in one hand, and the hatchet over his shoulder with the
other. He was surprised, indeed, to find that at the first step beyond
the encampment he sank considerably above the knees, but, being
wonderfully strong, he dashed the snow aside and was soon hid from view
by intervening bushes. Oliver, bearing his bow and bludgeon, followed
smartly in his track.
When they were gone Paul turned a look of inquiry on his companion.
Hendrick returned the look with profound gravity, but there was a faint
twinkle in his eyes which induced Paul to laugh.
"What mean you by this?" he asked.
"I mean that Master Trench will be the better of a lesson from
experience. He will soon return--sooner, perhaps, than you expect."
"Why so--how? I don't understand."
"Because," returned the hunter, "it is next to impossible to travel over
such ground in deep snow without snow-shoes. We must make these,
whether we advance or retreat. Meanwhile you had better blow up the
fire, and I will prepare breakfast."
"Did you not tell the captain we were to breakfast on the bluff?"
"I did; but the captain will never reach the bluff. Methinks I hear him
returning even now!"
The hunter was right. A quarter of an hour had barely elapsed when our
sturdy mariner re-entered the encampment, blowing like a grampus and
perspiring at every pore! Oliver was close at his heels, but not nearly
so much exhausted, for he had not been obliged to "beat the track."
"Master Hendrick," gasped the captain, when he had recovered breath,
"it's my opinion that we have only come here to lay down our bones and
give up the ghost--ay, and it's no laughing business; Master Paul, as
you'll find when you try to haul your long legs out of a hole three futt
deep at every step."
"Three futt deep!" echoed Oliver, "why, it's _four_ futt if it's an
inch--look at me. I've been wadin' up to the waist all the time!"
It need scarcely be said that their minds were much relieved when they
were made acquainted with the true state of matters, and that by means
of shoes that could be made by Hendrick, they would be enabled to
traverse with comparative ease the snow-clad wilderness--which else were
impassable.
But this work involved several days' delay in camp. Hendrick fashioned
the large though light wooden framework of the shoes--five feet long by
eighteen inches broad--and Oliver cut several deerskins into fine
threads, with which, and deer sinews, Paul and the captain, under
direction, filled in the net-work of the frames when ready.
"Can you go after deer on such things?" asked the captain one night
while they were all busy over this work.
"Ay, we can walk thirty or forty miles a day over deep snow with these
shoes," answered Hendrick.
"Where do the deer all come from?" asked Oliver, pausing in his work to
sharpen his knife on a stone.
"If you mean where did the reindeer come from at first, I cannot tell,"
said Hendrick. "Perhaps they came from the great unknown lands lying to
the westward. But those in this island have settled down here for life,
apparently like myself. I have hunted them in every part of the island,
and know their habits well. Their movements are as regular as the
seasons. The winter months they pass in the south, where the snow is
not so deep as to prevent their scraping it away and getting at the
lichens on which they feed. In spring--about March--they turn their
faces northward, for then the snow begins to be softened by the
increased power of the sun, so that they can get at the herbage beneath.
They migrate to the north-west of the island in innumerable herds of
from twenty to two hundred each--the animals following one another in
single file, and each herd being led by a noble stag. Thus they move in
thousands towards the hills of the west and nor'-west, where they arrive
in April. Here, on the plains and mountains, they browse on their
favourite mossy food and mountain herbage; and here they bring forth
their young in May or June. In October, when the frosty nights set in,
they again turn southward and march back to winter-quarters over the
same tracks, with which, as you have seen, the whole country is seamed.
Thus they proceed from year to year. They move over the land in
parallel lines, save where mountain passes oblige them to converge, and
at these points, I regret to say, my kinsmen! the Bethuck Indians, lie
in wait and slaughter them in great numbers, merely for the sake of
their tongues and other tit-bits."
"There is no call for regret, Master Hendrick," said Captain Trench.
"Surely where the deer are in such numbers, the killing of a few more or
less don't matter much."
"I think it wrong, captain, to slay God's creatures wantonly," returned
the hunter. "Besides, if it is continued, I fear that the descendants
of the present race of men will suffer from scarcity of food."
That Hendrick's fears were not groundless has been proved in many
regions of the earth, where wanton destruction of game in former days
has resulted in great scarcity or extinction at the present time.
In a few days a pair of snowshoes for each traveller was completed, and
the party was prepared to set out with renewed vigour on their return to
the hunter's home.