American Big-Game Hunting 
my clothes on, and we looked at my watch. It 
was only 4.304090) “1 and the Great 
Bear had made half an hour’s miscalculation, 
and the face of the cook was so grievous that 
I secretly laughed myself entirely awake. 
‘Plumb night” lasted some time longer. I 
had leisure to eat two plates of oatmeal and 
maple syrup, some potato-and-onion soup, 
bacon, and coffee, and digest these, before 
dawn showed. 
ay and I left camp at 6.40 a.m. The 
day was a dark one. On the high peaks 
behind camp great mounds of cloud moved 
and swung, and the sky was entirely overcast. 
We climbed one of the lower ridges, not a 
hard climb nor long, but very sliding, and 
often requiring hands and feet to work round 
a ledge. From the top we could see the open 
country lying comfortably below and out of 
reach of the howling wind that cut across 
the top of the mountain, straight from Puget 
Sound, bringing all that it could carry of the 
damp of the Pacific. The ridges and summits 
that surrounded our park continually came 
into sight and disappeared again among the 
dense vapors which bore down upon them. 
38 
re) 
