138 The Wilderness Hunter 



black tear thrust its sharp nose through the alders a 

 few feet from him, and then hastily withdrew and 

 was seen no more. The smaller wild-folk were more 

 familiar. As usual in the northern mountains, the 

 gray moose-birds and voluble, nervous little chip- 

 munks made themselves at home in the camp. 

 Parties of chickadees visited us occasionally. A 

 family of flying squirrels lived overhead in the 

 grove; and at nightfall they swept noiselessly from 

 tree to tree, in long, graceful curves. There were 

 sparrows of several kinds moping about in the 

 alders; and now and then one of them would sing 

 a few sweet, rather mournful bars. 



After several days' preliminary exploration we 

 started on foot for white goat. We took no packs 

 with us, each carrying merely his jacket, with a 

 loaf of bread and a paper of salt thrust into the 

 pockets. Our aim was to get well to one side of a 

 cluster of high, bare peaks, and then to cross them 

 and come back to camp; we reckoned that the trip 

 would take three days. 



All the first day we tramped through dense woods 

 and across and around steep mountain spurs. We 

 caught glimpses of two or three deer and a couple 

 of elk, all does or fawns, however, which we made 

 no effort to molest. Late in the afternoon we 

 stumbled across a family of spruce grouse, which 

 furnished us material for both supper and break- 

 fast. The mountain men call this bird the fool- 



