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which formed the summit of the range was a favorite hunting ground 

 of the Indians, we imagined that by following it we should be able to 

 ascend the mountain with little difficulty. For perhaps a hundred 

 yards the trail was broad and well worn, trees on all sides had been 

 *' blazed," and there was every evidence that it had been much used } 

 but we then came suddenly upon an opening in the woods and found 

 that our supposed mountain trail led only to an old camping ground 

 where canoes had been made the previous year. Our disappointment 

 was somewhat lessened by the discovery of a faint trail which still led 

 up the creek, and although in many places it was imperceptible we had 

 always two or three marked trees in sight before us, and had no difficulty 

 in making fair progress, for while there were fallen logs and trees without 

 number, our path wound in and out, over and under them, in such a 

 manner that there were no obstructions to delay us ; suddenly all traces 

 of the trail were lost, nor were there markings of any kind upon the 

 trees, After some time spent in a fruitless search for a continuation of 

 the trail we concluded that we had been following an old line of traps ; 

 why it should have ended so abruptly we could not understand until 

 having decided that trail or no trail we would push on, we looked about 

 us and saw that the creek valley had been gradually narrowing, so that 

 where we stood the bottom of the valley was not more than thirty yards 

 across ; the hills rose steeply on either hand, and on moving forward a 

 short distance and rounding a "shoulder" of a hill that had before 

 prevented us from seeing what was ahead, the reason for the sudden 

 termination of the trail was evident. The valley had grown still 

 narrower, or rather there was no longer any valley at all, the creek 

 flowing through a canyon about half a mile in length, in which distance 

 it fell several hundred feet. As we looked up the gorge we saw some- 

 thing darting in and out of the water, now disappearing behind a log or 

 rock and again coming into view twenty or thirty yards off, it was a 

 dipper, or water-ouzel (Cinches Mexicanus). A pair at. least of these 

 wonderful little birds is to be found somewhere on every stream in the 

 Gold Range, and yet it is nowhere common. Until mated it leads a 

 life which, did the bird not always appear to be active and happy, would 

 seem the essence of loneliness, for two of them are never seen together 

 except in the breeding season. The splashing of swiftly-running water 



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