LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 159 



expose themselves, and again the whites dealt destruc- 

 tion amongst them. As the Indians retired, yelling 

 loudly, the hunters thought they had given up the 

 contest ; but presently a cloud of smoke rising from the 

 bottom immediately below them, at once discovered the 

 nature of their plans. A brisk wind was blowing up 

 the cailon ; and, favoured by it, they fired the brush on 

 the banks of the stream, knowing that before this the 

 hunters must speedily retreat. 



Against such a result, but for the gale of wind which 

 drove the fire roaring before it, they could have provided 

 for your mountaineer never fails to find resources on 

 a pinch. They would have fired the brush to leeward 

 of their position, and also carefully ignited that to wind- 

 ward, or between them and the advancing flame, 

 extinguishing it immediately when a sufficient space had 

 thus been cleared, over which the flame could not leap, 

 and thus cutting themselves off from it both above and 

 below their position. In the present instance they 

 could not profit by such a course, as the wind was so 

 strong that, if once the bottom caught fire, they would 

 not be able to extinguish it ; besides which, in the 

 attempt, they would so expose themselves that they 

 would be picked off by the Indians without difficulty. 

 As it was, the fire came roaring before the wind with 

 the speed of a race-horse, and, spreading from the 

 bottom, licked the mountain sides, the dry grass burning 

 like tinder. Huge volumes of stifling smoke rolled 

 before it, and, in a very few minutes, the trappers were 

 hastily mounting their animals, driving the packed ones 



