bag of bullets, and the inevitable tobacco-pouch; while from his neck
swung a powder-horn, often richly carved, together with his cherished
pipe inclosed in its case of skin. Very often, however, the ranger
spared himself the trouble of a pipe by scooping a bowl in the back of
his tomahawk and fitting it with a hollow handle. Thus the same
implement became both the comfort of his leisure and the torment of his
enemies. In winter, when the Canadians, expert in the use of the
snow-shoe and fearless of the cold, did much of their fighting, they
wore thick peaked hoods over their heads, and looked like a procession
of friars wending through the silent forest on some errand of piety or
mercy. Their hands were covered by thick mittens of woollen yarn, and
they dragged their provisions and blankets on sleds or toboggans. At
night they would use their snow-shoes to shovel a wide, circular pit in
the snow, clearing it away to the bare earth. In the centre of the pit,
they would build their camp fire, and sleep around it on piles of spruce
boughs, secure from the winter wind. The leaders, usually members of
the nobility, fared on these expeditions as rudely as their men, and
outdid them in courage and endurance. Some of the most noted chiefs of
the wood-rangers were scions of the noblest families; and though living
most of the year the life of savages, were able to shine by their graces
and refinement in the courtliest society of the day.

Charles G. D. Roberts: "History of Canada."




A HYMN OF EMPIRE