220 BIRCH BROWSINGS. 



As soon as it was fairly light we were up 

 and ready to resume our march. A small 

 bit of bread-and-butter and a swallow or two 

 of whiskey was all we had for breakfast that 

 morning. Our supply of each was very lim- 

 ited, and we were anxious to save a little of 

 both, to relieve the diet of trout to which we 

 looked forward. 



At an early hour we reached the rock 

 where we had parted with the guide, and 

 looked around us into the dense, trackless 

 woods with many misgivings. To strike out 

 now on our own hook, where the way was so 

 blind, and after the experience we had just 

 had, was a step not to be carelessly taken. 

 The tops of these mountains are so broad, 

 and a short distance in the woods seems so 

 far, that one is by no means master of the 

 situation after reaching the summit. And 

 then there are so many spurs and offshoots 

 and changes of direction, added to the im- 

 possibility of making any generalization by 

 the aid of the eye, that before one is aware 

 of it, he is very wide of his mark. 



I remembered now that a young farmer of 

 my acquaintance had told me how he had 

 made a long day's march through the heart 

 of this region, without path or guide of any 



