There were odd sounds, too, as of soft footfalls, and now and then low, petulant cries.
"What in the world are they ?" Addison muttered.
Soon one of the mysterious white objects nearly bounced in at the door, and we discovered it was a hare in its white winter coat.

The whole swamp was full of hares, all on the leap, going in one direction.
Seizing a pole, Addison knocked over three or four of them; still they came by; there must have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, all going one way.
At a distance we heard occasionally loud, sharp squealings, as of distress, and presently a lynx that seemed to be on the roof of the ox camp squalled hideously.

Addison took the gun that we had brought, and while the hares were still flopping past, tried to get a shot at the lynx.

But he was unable to make it out in the darkness, and it escaped.
I brought in one of the hares.

I had an idea that we might add a bunch of them to our load for Portland; but it and the others that we had knocked over were too lank and light to be salable.
For an hour or more hares by the dozen continued to leap past the camp.
We repeatedly heard lynxes, or other beasts of prey, snarling at a distance, as if following the mob of hares.