232 SADDLE AND CAMP 



winters here alone, trapping beaver, brought 

 vividly to my mind the fearful struggles of 

 those indomitable pioneers. Could they but 

 speak, Snake River, the Tetons — every river, 

 mountain range and plain in this region — might 

 tell of the heroic deeds and desperate struggles 

 of those brave men of yesterday. 



Booth's cabin stands at the foot of a high, 

 barren mountain which rises well above tim- 

 ber line. Sometimes mountain sheep are to be 

 seen on this mountain from the cabin door. 

 Some fifty, the remnant of a once large flock, 

 inhabit the heights. Each year the huntsman's 

 rifle, however, is diminishing the number, and 

 very shortly they will be exterminated. These 

 are the most available sheep for the people of 

 'Afton and the other settlements of Star Val- 

 ley, and the few settlers in the valley below the 

 canon depend very largely upon wild game — 

 chiefly elk, but occasionally sheep — to supply 

 their tables with meat. It is usual for settlers 

 to corn sufficient elk meat to carry them over 

 the summer. 



During the first years that Booth lived here a 

 herd of about fifteen hundred elk passed down 

 the canon each autumn, on their way to their 

 winter range in the Snake River valley below, 

 and regularly returned in the spring to their 



