Deep snow then means fetters, starvation, and death.

There are two ways of meeting the problem: stilts and snowshoes.

The second is far the better.

The caribou, and the moose have stilts; the rabbit, the panther, and the lynx wear snowshoes.

When there are three or four feet of soft snow, the lynx is king of all small beasts, and little in fear of the large ones.
Man on his snowshoes has most wild four-foots at his mercy.
Skookum, without either means of meeting the trouble was left much alone in the shanty.