Mountain Game 141 



grouse found in the United States should be the 

 tamest; and also the least savory. 



After tramping all day through the forest, at 

 nightfall we camped in its upper edge, just at the 

 foot of the steep rock walls of the mountain. We 

 chose a sheltered spot, where the small spruce grew 

 thick, and there was much dead timber; and as the 

 logs, though long, were of little girth, we speedily 

 dragged together a number suffcient to keep the 

 fire blazing all night. Having drunk our full at a 

 brook we cut two forked willow sticks, and then 

 each plucked a grouse, split it, thrust the willow-fork 

 into it, and roasted it before the fire. Besides this 

 we had salt, and bread; moreover we were hungry 

 and healthily tired; so the supper seemed, and 

 was, delicious. Then we turned up the collars 

 of our jackets, and lay down, to pass the night 

 in broken slumber; each time the fire died down 

 the chill waked us, and we rose to feed it with 

 fresh logs. 



At dawn we rose, and cooked and ate the two re- 

 maining grouse. Then we turned our faces upward, 

 and passed a day of severe toil in climbing over the 

 crags. Mountaineering is very hard work; and 

 when we got high among the peaks, where snow 

 filled the rifts, the thinness of the air forced me to 

 stop for breath every few hundred yards of the as- 

 cent. We found much sign of white goats, but in 

 spite of steady work and incessant careful scanning 



