Like the Indians, they made themselves bows and arrows, using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, for bow-strings; and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled the inner bark of the slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank the sap of the sugar maple when they could get no water but melted snow only, which is unwholesome; at last, they even boiled their own mocassins." "Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish," said Catharine.
"That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself," added Hector, "or the deer-skin hunting shirt." "Well, they might have been reduced even to that," said Louis, laughing, "but for the good fortune that befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear." "Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale." "Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it?
After passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than the scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not very substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick dark swamp,--not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they could not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of a deer or a moose,--and night came upon them unawares, so they set to work to kindle up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they had none, or maybe they would have had game to eat.

Old Jacob fixed upon a huge hollow pine, that lay across their path, against which he soon piled a glorious heap of boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he could collect, and lighted up a fine fire.

You know what a noble hand old Jacob used to be at making up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, if he could not have warmth within, he would have plenty of it without.
The wood was dry pine and cedar and birch, and it blazed away, and crackled and burnt like a pine-torch.

By-and-by they heard a most awful growling close to them.

'That's a big bear, as I live,' said old Jacob, looking all about, thinking to see one come out from the thick bush; but Bruin was nearer to him than he thought, for presently a great black bear burst out from the but-end of the great burning log, and made towards Jacob; just then the wind blew the flame outward, and it caught the bear's thick coat, and he was all in a blaze in a moment.