The Slaughter of Big Game, &c. 37 



though sadly obstructing one's approaches to the above timber- 

 line regions inhabited by this animal, do not interfere with 

 the actual shooting of beasts inhabiting the regions above 

 vegetation. 



Taking it all round, I can safely say that on many occasions 

 I have seen in Wyoming and Idaho, in one single day, more big 

 game, not counting bison, than I have in all the ten or eleven years 

 put together in British Columbia. When the Montana and Idaho 

 hunting grounds were first invaded by railway builders, we have 

 already heard that thousands of navvies were fed for months on 

 game only ; when the same thing occurred in British Columbia 

 i.e., the Canadian Pacific was being built through the excessively 

 rough Selkirks or down the Fraser Canons narry a bit of venison 

 did the navvies ever see. Better proof of the extreme difference 

 between the game conditions in two countries could hardly be 

 adduced. 



In most of my subsequent expeditions I tried to combine what 

 sport I could fit in with interests in land and mining ventures, 

 which entailed the exploration of practically quite wild districts. 

 For, while disappointed with British Columbia's big game resources, 

 I was much taken with other features of that beautiful country. 

 During the ten or eleven years that I practically resided either 

 wholly or during a part of the year in British Columbia, I travelled 

 very many thousand miles on horseback, in coast and river canoes as 

 well as on rafts, on foot with rifle, and occasionally with my sleeping- 

 bag on my back, as well as by more civilised means of conveyance 

 over its mountain trails, picturesque lakes, and rushing rivers, which 

 teem with trout in quantities probably unrivalled by any other 

 country in the world. I have slept on the ground with and without 

 tents for six months at a time, and from occupying for a fortnight 

 the inside of a spare boiler on a steamer, have sought "the downy " 

 in the usual variety of strange places with which every pioneer is 

 familiar. And what, concerning the question at issue, is more 

 important, I have lived several summers and autumns in the 

 districts that were considered the best game countries in British 



