Hunting in the Selkirks 159 



thing for a fortnight's use on our backs, through an 

 excessively rough country we of course traveled as 

 light as possible, leaving almost all we had with the 

 tent and boat. Each took his own blanket; and 

 among us we carried a frying-pan, a teapot, flour, 

 pork, salt, tea, and matches. I also took a jacket, a 

 spare pair of socks, some handkerchiefs, and my 

 washing kit. Fifty cartridges in my belt completed 

 my outfit. 



We walked in single file, as is necessary in thick 

 woods. The white hunter led and I followed, each 

 with rifle on shoulder and pack on back. Ammal, 

 the Indian, pigeon-toed along behind, carrying his 

 pack, not as we did ours, but by help of a forehead- 

 band, which he sometimes shifted across his breast. 

 The traveling through the tangled, brush-choked 

 forest, and along the bowlder-strewn and precipitous 

 mountain sides, was inconceivably rough and diffi- 

 cult In places we followed the valley, and when 

 this became impossible we struck across the spurs. 

 Every step was severe toil. Now we walked through 

 deep moss and rotting mould, every few feet clam- 

 bering over huge trunks; again we pushed through 

 a stiff jungle of bushes and tall, prickly plants 

 called "devil's clubs," which stung our hands and 

 faces. Up the almost perpendicular hillsides we in 

 many places went practically on all fours, forcing 

 our way over the rocks and through the dense thick- 

 ets of laurels or young spruce. Where there were 



