140 The Wilderness Hunter. 



left as camp guard, while the white hunter and I would 

 start by daybreak 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 companion 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. 



The view from the summits was magnificent, and I 

 never tired of gazing at it. Sometimes the sky was a 

 dome of blue crystal, and mountain, lake, and valley lay 

 spread in startling clearness at our very feet ; and again 



