56 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



droppings were several inches deep. Apparently it was 

 liked because it was a good shelter, in the centre of a 

 fine sky-pasture, and within a few jumps of ideal safety 

 rocks. 



From the spot where the goats had lain, looking 

 ahead and to our left, we beheld a new mountain. Later 

 on we christened it Bird Mountain, because of the flocks 

 of ptarmigan we found upon its summit. Near its sum- 

 mit we saw five more goats, all females and kids. At 

 our feet lay a deep, rich-looking basin, then a low ridge, 

 another basin with a lakelet in it, and beyond that an- 

 other ridge, much higher than the first. Ridge No. 2 

 had dead timber upon it, but it was very scattering, for 

 it was timber-line; and its upper end snugged up against 

 the eastern wall of Bird Mountain. Later on we found 

 that the northern side of that ridge ended in a wall of 

 rock that was scalable by man in one place only. 



"Yonder are two big old billies!" said some one 

 with a glass in action. 



"Yes sir; there they are; all alone, and heading this 

 way, too. Those are your goats this time, Director, sure 

 enough." 



" Now boys," said I, " if we can stalk those two goats 

 successfully, and bag them both, neatly and in quick time, 

 we can call it genuine goat-hunting! " 



They were distant about a mile and a half, jogging 

 along down a rocky hill, through a perfect maze of 

 gullies, ridges, grass-plots and rocks, one of them keep- 

 ing from forty to fifty feet behind the other. 



Even at that distance they looked big, and very, very 



