LETTER X. 115 



either wolves or horses when the noise woke him, 

 and the fire had almost died out. Since the 

 wolves, there had been another visitor in camp, a 

 lynx, whose tracks came almost up to the tents. 

 We arranged a trap for him, and then went out 

 to look for our horses. Having found them 

 none the worse for their scare, Toma and I 

 saddled our ' hunters ' and rode off over the 

 downs, on which the snow lay in considerable 

 patches. There was nothing I feared so much in 

 my Similkameen experiences as these early morn- 

 ing rides with the frost on the grass, and many 

 a mile I tramped rather than ride over the 

 break-neck slopes, covered with long slippery her- 

 bage, on which even the Indian's gray could never 

 keep its footing. We used to progress in a suc- 

 cession of slides and slitherings, and it required 

 experience to enable you to trust to your ca- 

 youse's recovering his footing when you felt that 

 he had three legs in the air and the other was 

 slipping. On foot and in moccasins, I could not 

 keep my feet without a stick, and yet, after a 

 week's practice, Dolly and I would join Toma 

 and the gray in a break-neck canter merely to 

 warm our blood. 



On this particular morning, on the next bluff 

 to our own, we sighted the big buck and six 

 hinds leisurely feeding back to cover. The cover 



