PTARMIGANS. 195 



seemed to us as if Boreas were practising on a gigantic 

 cornet, and after a little investigation we found we were 

 riglit m our surmises, the cornet being nothing less than 

 the chasm in our vicinity. These trumpeting precipices 

 are quite familiar to those who have frequented high 

 mountains in the West, but the best known is a ravine 

 in the Cascade Range, which is said to be a natural yEo- 

 lian harp, and superior to the one in the Hartz Moun- 

 tains, in Germany. The gale subsided about midnight, 

 and we fell asleep. The energetic member of the party 

 was up before daylight, and after building a fire he com- 

 menced routing the others, tumbling Jabe on the floor. 



Seeing that resistance would be useless, Jabe dressed 

 himself, by merely putting on his boots and hat, and 

 then calmly said that some men were meaner than ''yal- 

 ler dogs." Without waiting for an answer to this, he 

 started for the mountain with the camp-kettle, filled it 

 with hard-pressed snow, and having hung it over the ex- 

 temporized crane, made of cross-sticks, he commenced 

 rubbing the guns, which had been freely washed with 

 vaseline the previous evening. By the time he had fin- 

 ished this work, breakfast was announced, and we were 

 soon doing justice to roast ptarmigan and fried pork, 

 and some excellent coffee, which had never known adul- 

 teration. When the repast was over we started for the 

 chasm, but we had not proceeded far before a heavy fog 

 arose and covered everything with such an impenetrable 

 pall that we could not see ten paces ahead of us. It was 

 therefore decided to return to camp for the day, or until 

 the mist cleared away, but we found it no easy matter to 

 do this, for the fog was deepening so rapidly that we had 

 to stoop close to the ground to track our own footsteps. 



We remained in camp all day, but were out early the 

 next morning, and at work in a chasm by seven o'clock. 

 We shot birds and examined the country in that region 

 for four days, and then started homeward, disappointed 



