1 66 The Wilderness Hunter 



kept halting to hunt the adjoining mountains. On 

 such occasions Ammal was left as camp guard, 

 while the white hunter and I would start by day- 

 break and return at dark utterly worn out by the 

 excessive fatigue. We knew nothing of caribou, 

 nor where to hunt for them ; and we had been told 

 that thus early in the season they were above tree 

 limit on the mountain sides. Accordingly we would 

 climb up to the limits of the forests, but never found 

 a caribou trail ; and once or twice we went on to the 

 summits of the crag-peaks, and across the deep 

 snow fields in the passes. There were plenty of 

 white goats, however, their trails being broad paths, 

 especially at one spot where they led down to a lick 

 in the valley; round the lick for a space of many 

 yards the ground was trampled as if in a sheepfold. 

 The mountains were very steep, and the climbing 

 was in places dangerous, when we were above the 

 timber and had to make our way along the jagged 

 knife-crests and across the faces of the cliffs; while 

 our hearts beat as if about to burst in the high, thin 

 air. In walking over rough but not dangerous 

 ground across slides or in thick timber my com- 

 panion was far more skilful than I was; but rather 

 to my surprise I proved to be nearly as good as he 

 when we came to the really dangerous places, where 

 we had to go slowly, and let one another down 

 from ledge to ledge, or crawl by narrow cracks 

 across the rock walls. 



