CHAPTER VIII 



HUNTING IN THE SELKIRKS; THE CARIBOU 



IN September, 1888, I was camped on the shores 

 of Kootenai Lake, having with me as companions 

 John Willis and an impassive-looking Indian named 

 Ammal. Coming across through the dense coniferous 

 forests of northern Idaho we had struck the Koo- 

 tenai River. Then we went down with the current 

 as it wound in half circles through a long alluvial 

 valley of mixed marsh and woodland, hemmed in 

 by lofty mountains. The lake itself, when we 

 reached it, stretched straight away like a great fiord, 

 a hundred miles long and about three in breadth. 

 The frowning and rugged Selkirks came down sheer 

 to the water's edge. So straight were the rock walls 

 that it was difficult for us to land with our batteau, 

 save at the places where the rapid mountain torrents 

 entered the lake. As these streams of swift water 

 broke from their narrow gorges they^made little 

 deltas of level ground with beaches of fine white 

 sand ; and the stream-banks were edged with cotton- 

 wood and poplar, their shimmering foliage reliev- 

 ing the sombre coloring of the evergreen forest. 



Close to such a brook, from which we drew strings 

 of large silver trout, our tent was pitched, just with- 

 (156) 



