94 Sport and Life. 



Indian blood in her veins. He had grown up with the lusty north- 

 west. On his seven fingers, which were all a certain cold winter 

 had left him, he could count as he was proud to tell you, all the 

 white "ladies" he had ever seen. His language was free, even for 

 the West, his aim having apparently been to select and incorporate 

 in his vocabulary the most blasphemous terms of both English, 

 French, and Chinook. He was of a sanguine temperament, and 

 what with the exhilarating champagne-like atmosphere which is 

 such a constant temptation to indulge in talk commensurate with 

 the gigantic size of one's surroundings, it was no wonder that 

 Arcles was found to be worthy of his reputation. Aside from the 

 fact that his qualification to act as our guide was about the biggest 

 of all lies he had ever fabricated, he proved a willing fellow and 

 a good cook ; so while we did his guiding he did our cooking, 

 a combination satisfactory to both parties. 



A peculiarity of the several great mountain chains in the 

 interior of the Pacific slope, such as the Bitter-Root, Cceur d'Alene, 

 and Selkirk ranges, are the vast stretches of exceedingly dense 

 forests which clothe their precipitous slopes up to an altitude of 

 yoooft. or Soooft., in unbroken, and then practically untrodden, 

 masses. The western slopes of the Bitter-Root peaks make no 

 exception, and this we saw when, after two days' travel through a 

 partly open country, we reached the foot of the chain, and camped 

 on one of the last open grassy spaces. At an early hour the 

 following morning we entered the forest, hoping by a long day's 

 scramble to reach timber-line ; for the country looked comparatively 

 easy to cross, and we could not imagine that, with our pack animals 

 trained to such work, we possibly could fail to penetrate the dark 

 green maze that mantled, the slopes in a primeval luxuriance of 

 growth. But the forests of the Pacific slope belie appearance, and 

 as our guide had begun his duties by telling us, just as a sample 

 of his powers in the way of yarning, that he knew a trail which 

 would lead us in six or seven hours up to timber-line, we spent 

 more than three days in getting through the woods, intersected as 

 they were by bits of burnt forests and numerous "windfalls" of 



