132 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



very quietly. " Don't make a misstep. A roll down here 

 might be pretty serious." 



There was no doubt about it. A genuine fall on that 

 treacherous stuff, either backward or sidewise, might 

 easily send a man plunging downward so swiftly that 

 there would be no stopping short of the bottom. The 

 slide-rock was mostly in angular chunks about the size 

 of furnace coal, and almost as hard as flint. It reminded 

 me of the inch-and-a-half broken trap-rock that we use 

 in the Zoological Park in surfacing our roads. Imagine 

 the steepest house-roof you ever saw bestrewn with that 

 stuff, ready to roll at the touch of a foot, and you will 

 know what that slope was like as a place to climb. 



In taking a step upward, the foot had to win a firm 

 resting-place on the loose rock before the body's weight 

 was thrown upon it; for each step had to be a success. 

 The strain on the ankles was really very severe, — and on 

 the mind it was equally so. In a party like ours, no one 

 wants to be a spoil-sport, and get hurt, tie up the whole 

 hunt, and possibly be carried out in a package strapped 

 to a horse's back. Accidents are forbidden luxuries! 



I suppose that slope was about six hundred feet long. 

 Charlie kindly offered to carry my rifle for me, and even 

 insisted upon it; but up to that time I had carried my 

 rifle every step of my hunting ways, and I elected to stay 

 with it, up or down. 



As we neared the summit, we saw that we were ap- 

 proaching a " knife-edge." It was not a level knife- 

 edge, either, but sloped sharply, and at one place broke 

 down very abruptly for several feet. It was then clear 



