Hunting at High Altitudes 



five miles to the Boulder River, at a point about a 

 mile and a half above the natural bridge. Here 

 there was a pool in the river made by a beaver 

 dam, which afforded us a sufficiency of trout. Mil- 

 ligan and Cochran had their traps set, and in a 

 few days caught some beaver, the tails of which 

 were saved for beaver tail soup. While here, Wm. 

 Judd, the Chief Clerk of the Crow Indian Agency, 

 visited me and remained to the end of the hunt. 

 He was fond of hunting and fishing, and especially 

 expert in casting the fly. On any favorable day he 

 would cast into an air-hole of the frozen river and 

 haul out trout on the ice. I had never heard of 

 trout being caught with an artificial fly in the depth 

 of winter. Our camp was well protected. We 

 had a sheltered place for the tent, an abundance 

 of elk and black-tail deer, trout whenever desired, 

 and beaver tail for soup. Up to this time the 

 weather had been clear and bracing, nor had there 

 been any snowstorms, such as usually occur in Sep- 

 tember and the early part of October. 



We had no success with bears from this camp, 

 although one came almost every night, climbed the 

 tree on which Milligan's fifteen elk hams were 

 hung, carried one away to a neighboring thicket 

 and feasted on it at his leisure. Although I 

 watched for him almost every night until a late 



144 



