and look for some partridges, which he heard "drumming"* some little
distance a-head.

[* This sound is made by the Canadian partridge (a species of the
grouse) during its season of courtship. The cock-bird perches himself
on the top of a large hollow log, or fallen tree, and with his wings
produces a vibratory sound, like the distant roll of a drum, which, in
still weather, can easily be heard at the distance of a mile in the
woods.]

In the pursuit of his game, he was induced to go further than he had at
first intended. He never doubted that he should easily find his way
back to the line. In this, however, he was woefully deceived, for the
day was cloudy, and the face of the country was very rough. It formed,
indeed, a part of the great granite range, which is said to cross the
St. Lawrence, at the Lake of the Thousand Islands, traversing the rear
of the Midland District and the counties of Hastings and Peterborough,
through the unsurveyed lands north of Lake Simcoe, to the shores of
Lake Huron. This granite formation is supposed to have an average
breadth of ten or twelve miles, being intersected with small lakes,
deep ravines and precipitous rocks. The woods of this region being
composed principally of pine, hemlock, and cedar, are of a peculiarly
gloomy character. In such a difficult country as this, it was no wonder
that our inexperienced trapper went astray.

After an hour's fruitless search for the line, he came to the
conclusion that he was lost, and that his only chance was to fire off
his gun, in the hope that his companion would hear and return it. As no
answering sound greeted his ear, he durst not fire his only remaining
charge of powder, for it was all he had to defend himself from wolves,