LETTER V. 69 



country looked, wandering members of the great 

 Anglo-Saxon family had nevertheless, even here, 

 marked out what they were pleased to call their 

 property with bounds and limits. Now and 

 again we came upon great corrals of high-piled 

 logs, and once upon a log-hut, of the roughest 

 and most primitive fashion, but labelled, none the 

 less, Similkameen Hotel. True, no one was in, 

 and the door was locked ; but three pairs of 

 antlers, amongst the pressed meat-tins and other 

 rubbish round the hut, showed by their freshness 

 that someone had been there very recently. A 

 more perfect country for deer to winter in I 

 never saw, with ample food in the sun-dried 

 grasses, and shelter in the deep hollows, and 

 amongst the clumps of great trees. And its 

 looks do not belie it, for the man who lives at 

 the closed hotel, of which I just spoke, met me 

 afterwards, and told me that last winter he shot 

 ninety-four deer himself, though he did not 

 reckon himself much of a shot (and he was right 

 there), and did not trouble after them much. 

 ' What did you do with them V I asked. ' Well, 

 I eat some little, and fed my hogs on the rest !' 

 From the crest of the ridge to the Ashinola the 

 horses were in clover, and soon became something 

 better than mere anatomical studies. On the 

 summit we found good feed, deep, rich grasses, 



