The Wapiti 185 



spruces, the traveling being easy. Then we came 

 to the edge of a deep valley, a couple of miles across. 

 Into these we scrambled, down a steep slide, where 

 the forest had grown up among the immense bowlder 

 masses. The going here was difficult to a degree; 

 the great rocks, dead timber, slippery pine needles, 

 and loose gravel entailing caution at every step, 

 while we had to guard our rifles carefully from the 

 consequences of a slip. It was not much better at 

 the bottom, which was covered by a tangled mass of 

 swampy forest. Through this we hunted carefully, 

 but with no success, in spite of our toil ; for the only 

 tracks we saw that were at all fresh were those of 

 a cow and calf moose. Finally, in the afternoon, 

 we left the valley and began to climb a steep gorge, 

 down which a mountain torrent roared and foamed 

 in a succession of cataracts. 



Three hours hard climbing brought us to another 

 valley, but of an entirely different character. It 

 was several miles long, but less than a mile broad. 

 Save at the mouth, it was walled in completely by 

 chains of high rock-peaks, their summits snow 

 capped; the forest extended a short distance up 

 their sides. The bottom of the valley was in places 

 covered by open woodland, elsewhere by marshy 

 meadows, dotted with dense groves of spruce. 



Hardly had we entered this valley before we 

 caught a glimpse of a yearling elk walking rapidly 

 along a game path some distance ahead. We fol- 



