ALONE ON A MOUNTAIN 147 



decided to climb to a certain summit west of camp, on 

 which I had noted from Phillips Peak (opposite), some 

 excellent grounds for mule deer. I felt that I would 

 like to explore those summits all alone, and have a good 

 think, game or no game. 



As a matter of ordinary precaution, I told Charlie 

 and Huddleston where I intended to go, and asked for 

 any directions that might be helpful. Charlie told me 

 that an old game-trail led around the waterfall I in- 

 tended to strike, and that if I went hither and yon, and 

 thus and so, I would probably strike it. His directions 

 were clear enough, but somehow I have before now 

 found it difficult to make the ground-plan of a wild 

 western landscape fit the specifications of it. This time, 

 however, I resolved to try to do better in that respect. 



Seldom have I seen in any land a finer day. The 

 sun shone bravely, but at intervals it was partly obscured 

 by fleecy white clouds that briskly drifted up from the 

 west, then passed on over. The air was wondrous clear, 

 and just cold enough to be invigorating. 



Charlie's one direction which I had so firmly spiked 

 down that it failed to escape, was that I would do well 

 to go as far as possible up the bed of the little creek that 

 came down from my Waterfall Notch. This I did. At 

 first I found it absolutely dry, and the going over the 

 small, smooth dornicks was rather easy. But in a short 

 time, the dense green timber that filled the valley threw 

 so many tree-trunks across the stream's course that I was 

 obliged to scramble out and take to the easier bank. 



At that point Charlie's directions were lost in the 



