A STONE-EABB1T. 2<)9 



neighbouring 'breaks' often compelled us to make long and 

 wide detours. We rode along in perfect silence, hoping to 

 get a shot at something eatable ; but although we began to 

 see occasional tracks of deer, we saw no game. At noon 

 we rested the animals for a couple of hours where the feed 

 was tolerably good, and spent the time hunting for some- 

 thing with which to appease our hunger, but without 

 success. Towards evening we got down amongst the 

 lower foot-hills. The pine forest was already beginning to 

 be replaced by growths of balsams, spruces, cedars, and 

 piiions, and the tracks of foxes, wild-cats, coyotes, and 

 rabbits became numerous. Shortly before sunset we had 

 the good fortune to see and kill a coney, or ' stone-rabbit.' 

 Now the stone-rabbit, though, as his name implies, a dweller 

 in stony places, is almost invariably very fat, certainly the 

 best eating of the genus, but the most diminutive of all the 

 rabbit family. The one we shot was plump and tender, and 

 well-flavoured. Alas ! he was also extremely small. There 

 was on]y just enough of him to mock the appetite of two 

 starving men ; however, we soon forgot our hunger in sleep, 

 and in dreams dined a la carte. 



" Early morning found us stirring. A cast round camp 

 failed to furnish anything for breakfast. The tightened 

 belt and well-filled pipe had again to be resorted to as a 

 substitute for that meal, and we pushed along at a sharp 

 walk, occasionally trotting where the ground admitted it ; 

 for the animals, having pretty well filled themselves the 

 previous night, were stronger and more lively than hitherto. 

 Before midday the canon, whose general course we had 

 been following, opened out into a continually widening 



