PREFACE 



My friends are called upon to bear witness that of 

 the various hunting trips I have enjoyed in the late 

 lamented Wild West, I have written of one only. That 

 was twenty years ago. For so large a sum of outdoor 

 enjoyment which might have been set forth in print, my 

 sight drafts upon the reading public have been by no 

 means extravagant. 



Even up to the end of our hunt in British Columbia, 

 I had no thought of bookmaking; but now that the hunt 

 is over, and we are out of those wonderful mountains, a 

 printed record seems worth while. The land looms up 

 so grandly, its wild creatures seem so interesting, and 

 Mr. Phillips's pictures so fine, it would seem churlish to 

 refuse the labor that will place them before those who 

 care to enjoy them. Moreover, detailed information of 

 nature as it exists to-day on the summits of the Colum- 

 bian Rockies is not so outrageously abundant that this 

 volume is likely to be crowded ofif the shelf by other 

 books on that subject. 



One month ago to-day we scrambled out of the 

 mountains of southeastern British Columbia, tired, torn, 

 and travel-stained, but with the wheels of Time turned 

 back about five years. Three months ago literary com- 



