TJie Home of the VVolve^-ciie and Beaver, 203 



rare intervals a little rain-water which had lodged 

 in the crevice of a rock, and which just sufficed to 

 keep body and soul together. At length a severe 

 snow storm came on, and brought them to a stand- 

 still, for in their enfeebled condition any attempt 

 to struggle through it was useless, and convinced of 

 this the wanderers gathered under the shelter of 

 a rock, and there seated themselves in readiness for 

 the death that they deemed inevitable. 



Resignedly at the base of that rock, beneath the 

 shadow of a gloomy mountain, those eleven men 

 prepared to die — to leave their bones bleaching in 

 the rugged wilderness after their flesh had gone to 

 feed the wolf and the raven. Even the light-hearted 

 Canadians felt the influence of the impending 

 doom, and the ready jest and smile with which they 

 had lightened many a weary hour were absent, and 

 replaced by a muttered prayer to the Throne on 

 high or the meaningless glance of blank despair. 

 But suddenly McLellan, who from the position he 

 had taken up could command a greater extent of 

 the surrounding landscape than his companions, 

 motioned them to silence, and with outstretched 

 arm pointed to a big-horn or Rocky Mountain sheep, 

 that had taken shelter under a shelving rock on the 

 side of the hill above them. 



Hope was now visible in each haggard face, and 



