Still-Hunting Elk. 28 7 



and in times long gone by had been dammed by the 

 beaver. This had at first choked up the passage and 

 made a small lake ; then dams were built higher and 

 higher up, making chains of little ponds. By degrees 

 these filled up, and the whole valley became a broad 

 marshy meadow, through which the brook wound between 

 rows of willows and alders. These beaver meadows are 

 very common ; but are not usually of such large size. 

 Around this camp there was very little game ; but we got a 

 fine mess of spotted trout by taking a long and most toil- 

 some walk up to a little lake lying very near timber line. 

 Our rods and lines were most primitive, consisting of two 

 clumsy dead cedars (the only trees within reach), about 

 six feet of string tied to one and a piece of catgut to the 

 other, with preposterous hooks ; yet the trout were so 

 ravenous that we caught them at the rate of about one a 

 minute ; and they formed another welcome change in our 

 camp fare. This lake lay in a valley whose sides were so 

 steep and boulder-covered as to need hard climbing to get 

 into and out of it. Every day in the cold, clear weather 

 we tramped miles and miles through the woods and 

 mountains, which, after a snow-storm took on a really 

 wintry look ; while in the moonlight the snow-laden for- 

 ests shone and sparkled like crystal. The dweller in cities 

 has but a faint idea of the way we ate and slept. 



One day Merrifield and I went out together and had a 

 rather exciting chase after some bull elk. The previous 

 evening, toward sunset, I had seen three bulls trotting off 

 across an open glade toward a great stretch of forest and 

 broken ground, up near the foot of the rocky peaks. 



