Hunting at High Altitudes 



pull, the trail wagons were dropped, and each 

 wagon pulled up separately and then assembled at 

 the top of the hill. If danger from hostile Indians 

 threatened, the wagons were brought together to 

 form a fortification, and the nine or ten expert 

 shots within the circle of the wagons usually gave 

 a good account of themselves. It was through men 

 able so to adapt themselves to surrounding con- 

 ditions that the magnificent Empire of the North- 

 west was wrested from the control of the savage. 

 At that date Bismarck was the nearest railroad 

 point on the east, while on the south it was Ogden 

 or perhaps Corinne. The great waterway of the 

 Missouri River furnished Montana and a great 

 portion of the British Northwest with most of the 

 necessaries of life, as clothing, sugar, coffee and 

 canned provisions. The only articles of export 

 were gold from the placer mines in the mountains 

 which usually went out by Ogden and the 

 skins of various furred animals, such as beaver, 

 fox and wolf, together with the hides of the ante- 

 lope, deer, elk and buffalo. 



At Cow Island I spent a very enjoyable month 

 from August 31 to September 28. Black-tailed 

 mule deer were fairly abundant, but there were 

 no elk or bear. I made frequent excursions into the 

 adjacent hills and killed some deer, which were 



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