anyway, for these owls were very inquisitive fellows. He immediately
became a candidate for our pot, and as many as six were shot in one
day. The men called them the "manna of the Labrador wilderness."
Pete's disinclination to eat them was quickly forgotten, for hunger is
a wonderful killer of prejudices, and he was as keen for them now as
any of us.

An occasional partridge was killed and now and again a black duck or
two helped out our short ration, but the owls were our mainstay. We
did not have enough to satisfy the appetites of five hungry men,
however; still we did fairly well.

The days were growing perceptibly shorter with each sunset, and the
nights were getting chilly. On the night of August twenty-fifth, the
thermometer registered a minimum temperature of twenty-five degrees
above zero, and on the twenty-sixth of August, forty-eight degrees was
the maximum at midday.

During the forenoon of that day we reached the largest of the lakes
that the scouting party had seen three days before, and further
scouting was now necessary. At the western end of the lake, about two
miles from where we entered, a hill offered itself as a point from
which to view the country beyond, and here we camped.

We were now out of the burned district and the scant growth of timber
was apparently the original growth, though none of the trees was more
than eight inches or so in diameter. In connection with this it might
be of interest to note here the fact that the timber line ended at an
elevation of two hundred and seventy-five feet above the lake. The
hill was four hundred feet high and there was not a vestige of