It was not difficult now for the boys to force their way through the drift and they were soon standing waist-deep in the snow twenty yards from the cabin.

“The snow is only about four feet deep in the open,” said Wabi.  “But look at that!”

He turned and gazed at the cabin, or rather at the small part of it which still rose triumphant above the huge drift which had almost completely buried it.  Only a little of the roof, with the smoking chimney rising out of it, was to be seen.  Rod now turned in all directions to survey the wild scene about him.  There had come a brief lull in the blizzard, and his vision extended beyond the lake and to the hilltop.  There was not a spot of black to meet his eyes; every rock was hidden; the trees hung silent and lifeless under their heavy mantles and even their trunks were beaten white with the clinging volleys of the storm.  There came to him then a thought of the wild things in this seemingly uninhabitable desolation.  How could they live in this endless desert of snow?  What could they find to eat?  Where could they find water to drink?  He asked Wabi these questions after they had returned to the cabin.

“Just now, if you traveled from here to the end of this storm zone you wouldn’t find a living four-legged creature,” said Wabigoon.  “Every moose in this country, every deer and caribou, every fox and wolf, is buried in the snow.  And as the snow falls deeper about them the warmer and more comfortable do they become, so that even as the blizzard increases in fury the kind Creator makes it easier for them to bear.  When the storm ceases the wilderness will awaken into life again.  The moose and deer and caribou will rise from their snow-beds and begin to eat the boughs of trees and saplings; a crust will have formed on the snow, and all the smaller animals, like foxes, lynx and wolves, will begin to travel again, and to prey upon others for food.  Until they find running water again snow and ice take the place of liquid drink; warm caverns dug in the snow give refuge in place of thick swamp moss and brush and leaves.  All the big animals, like moose, deer and caribou, will soon make ‘yards’ for themselves by trampling down large areas of snow, and in these yards they will gather in big herds, eating their way through the forests, fighting the wolves and waiting for spring.  Oh, life isn’t altogether bad for the animals in a deep winter like this!”

Until noon the hunters were busy cleaning away the snow from the cabin door.  As the day advanced the blizzard increased in its fury, until, with the approach of night, it became impossible for the hunters to expose themselves to it.  For three days the storm continued with only intermittent lulls, but with the dawn of the fourth day the sky was again cloudless, and the sun rose with a blinding effulgence.  Rod now found himself suffering from that sure affliction of every tenderfoot in the far North—­snow-blindness.