Travelling in the Western Hunting Grounds. \ 3 



well knew the West have on different occasions stood up for the 

 sterling stuff of the genuine frontiersman. 



Port, the leading spirit in my party, was such a man about 

 thirty-four years of age, tall, squarely built, with very sound bodily 

 strength and as sound constitution, which, as he would tell you, not 

 even the two nights he slept in a proper bed in eleven years have 

 succeeded in undermining. His face was tanned to a Sioux 



SWIMMING THE THOMPSON RIVER IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



brownish-red ; and a fine beard, kept very cleanly, hid the lower 

 portion of his pleasant features. A glance at the outer shell, a look 

 into the grey-blue eyes, betrayed the character of the man before 

 you. Very silent in the presence of strangers always a good sign 

 in this western country his appearance pleased me from the first. 

 He was born in West Kansas in its earliest days, when the eastern 

 portion of that State was the " bleeding Kansas " of which, forty 

 years ago, we heard so much. Settlements were far apart ; and 



