256 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



the horses, the sun had already risen, but it was evi 

 dent that the clear weather of a fortnight past was 

 over. The air was thick and hazy, and away off in 

 the northwest a towering mass of grayish white 

 clouds looked like a weather-breeder; everything 

 boded a storm at no distant date. The country over 

 which we now hunted was wilder and more moun 

 tainous than any we had yet struck. High, sharp 

 peaks and ridges broke off abruptly into narrow 

 gorges and deep ravines; they were bare of all but 

 the scantiest vegetation, save on some of the shel 

 tered sides where grew groves of dark pines, now 

 laden down with feathery snow. The climbing was 

 as hard as ever. At first we went straight up the 

 side of the tallest peak, and then along the knife- 

 like ridge which joined it with the next. The ice 

 made the footing very slippery as we stepped along 

 the ledges or crawled round the jutting shoulders, 

 and we had to look carefully for our footholds; 

 while in the cold, thin air every quick burst we made 

 up a steep hill caused us to pant for breath. We 

 had gone but a little way before we saw fresh signs 

 of the animals we were after, but it was some time 

 before we came upon the quarry itself. 



We left the high ground and descending into a 

 narrow chasm walked along its bottom, which was 

 but a couple of feet wide, while the sides rose up 

 from it at an acute angle. After following this 

 for a few hundred yards, we turned a sharp corner, 

 and shortly afterward our eyes were caught by 

 some grains of fresh earth lying on the snow in 



