442 The Wilderness Hunter. 



traits to what was merely some abnormally wicked and 

 cunning wild beast ; but whether this was so or not, no 

 man can say. 



When the event occurred Bauman was still a young 

 man, and was trapping with a partner among the moun- 

 tains dividing the forks of the Salmon from the head of 

 Wisdom River. Not having had much luck, he and his 

 partner determined to go up into a particularly wild and 

 lonely pass through which ran a small stream said to con- 

 tain many beaver. The pass had an evil reputation be- 

 cause the year before a solitary hunter who had wandered 

 into it was there slain, seemingly by a wild beast, the half- 

 eaten remains being afterwards found by some mining pros- 

 pectors who had passed his camp only the night before. 



The memory of this event, however, weighed very 

 lightly with the two trappers, who were as adventurous 

 and hardy as others of their kind. They took their two 

 lean mountain ponies to the foot of the pass, where they 

 left them in an open beaver meadow, the rocky timber- 

 clad ground being from thence onwards impracticable for 

 horses. They then struck out on foot through the vast, 

 gloomy forest, and in about four hours reached a little 

 open glade where they concluded to camp, as signs of 

 game were plenty. 



There was still an hour or two of daylight left, and 

 after building a brush lean-to and throwing down and 

 opening their packs, they started up stream. The country 

 was very dense and hard to travel through, as there was 

 much down timber, although here and there the sombre 

 woodland was broken by small glades of mountain grass. 



