194 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



we moved off in a body and commenced examining tlie 

 country and carefully noting its crags and soil. Much 

 as we were interested in this work, we did not forget to 

 pay particular attention to any game worth shooting, but 

 the only kind we met at that altitude were ptarmigans, 

 and they were quite numerous, comparatively speaking. 

 We encountered them in small packs in the forest, on 

 bare, rocky patches of ground, and on the snowfields, 

 and experienced little difficulty in detecting them, owing 

 to the contrast m hue they presented to their surround- 

 ings; but when they were scattered in places where rocks 

 and shrubbery abounded, we were less successful, es- 

 pecially if they remained quiet, which they generally did 

 until the dogs were almost upon them; and even then 

 they seemed, m many cases, to consider their canine foes 

 as mere harmless visitors whose actions they could not 

 understand. The greatest trouble we had with them was 

 to make them take to the wing, for when the hound was 

 sent to flush them only a few would rise, the remainder 

 preferring to skulk among the rocks or in the under- 

 growth, and keep skulking until they were shot out of 

 mere irritation. We were so weary from our arduous 

 climbing, tumbling, and prospecting during the day, that 

 we retired to bed soon after supper, but we were not long 

 asleep before we were aroused by a cold breeze, that swept 

 through the forest with a force that made every tree and 

 shrub moan weirdly, as if it were inhat)ited by ■wailing 

 sprites. As the gale increased in violence we were startled 

 into a most active condition of mind by a deep, reverbera- 

 ting sound, not unlike that produced by a grand organ, 

 which rolled towards us in swelling volumes from the di- 

 rection of the precipice. We listened attentively to this 

 for some time without being able to detect the cause, for 

 it was sometimes low and soft, then loud, vehement, 

 and resonant. 



The peals were so emphatic and stentorian that it 



