The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-31
A TRAMP IN THE SNOW.

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 It had showed hard, thawed, frozen and showed again, and for the traveller unprepared the walking was about as bad as it could be. The snow was deep and just beneath the soft upper coverings there was a crust which would halt you almost. It was the kind of crust which supports you until you put the very last ounce of your weight upon the forwasd foot, and then lets you down with a tfun1p, and cuts your knee as you bend for- ward for the next stride. But the snow-shoeing was perfect, So I donned 9 pair of snow-shoes and got into the Blue Mountain Forest.
 The first thing to attract my atten- ton was the trail of fox, which ran from ledge of rocks on a hillside. and, extending across stretch of open pasture land, disappeared in a thicket of spElce. The track was very much like that of a small dog, and the differ ences were easier to see than to de- scribe. Perhaps the footprints were a trifle longer and narrower, for their size, than those of most dogs would be, and perhaps they were arranged more nearly in a straight line. But as Kimton, the guide, would say, they didn't look just right for dog and perhaps, after all that's as much of a comparison as most of us could give l followed the. back track as far as the ledge, and there, near the edge of the
 
 good view of the country below, was a round depression in the snow, where the fox is going to lie down to sleep, He usually walks round in a little cir cIe, having Q diameter shorter than his own length, since he half curls him. self up while still on his feet. After pivoting in this way for a moment, he sinks down to the ground, curls up s with the tip of his nose near the root of the tail and with, his thick brush covering his feet and his face, I have seen foxes lying thus in the early morning, sometimes with little but their back ear-tips sticking out above the snow which had fallen since they lay down. And I have seen them get up, yawn and stretch themselves, calmly scratch themselves with their hind feet, and trot off, possibly in search of some partridge imprisoned in some snow bank. '
 Then turned and followed the trail straight to the spruces, through it and down to the valley. Here 1t was joined by another trail, also a fox's but some- what smaller, probably that of a vixen. At the point where the trails met the snow was much cut up, showing per- haps where the foxes had romped to- gether when they met. have seen two foxes at the moment of meeting, romp together like kittens, whining and smiling with evident delight. Sometimes one will lie down, and sur vey the other, mean while wagging his brush in a way which leaves no doubt of his pleasure From this point the two foxes had gone off together for the two trails led away, side, by side, sometimes coming together, and some times separating for stretches of vary ing length.
 The next trail came across was of a very curious pattern, and looked as though it might have been made by plunging a dumb bell into the snow lenthwise every two feet. As mat ter Of affect, it had been made by an elk. Every time this great, heavy beast had taken stride, his foot had broken through the crust, making a