STEEP TRAILS 



them higher. Even these were brought within 

 reach without excessive climbing during the 

 storms of winter. 



On the north side of Shasta, near Sheep 

 Rock, there is a long cavern, sloping to the 

 northward, nearly a mile in length, thirty or 

 forty feet wide, and fifty feet or more in height, 

 regular in form and direction like a railroad 

 tunnel, and probably formed by the flowing 

 away of a current of lava after the harden- 

 ing of the surface. At the mouth of this cave, 

 where the light and shelter is good, I found 

 many of the heads and horns of the wild sheep, 

 and the remains of campfires, no doubt those 

 of Indian hunters who in stormy weather had 

 camped there and feasted after the fatigues of 

 the chase. A wild picture that must have 

 formed on a dark night the glow of the fire, 

 the circle of crouching savages around it seen 

 through the smoke, the dead game, and the 

 weird darkness and half -darkness of the walls 

 of the cavern, a picture of cave-dwellers at 

 home in the stone age! 



Interest in hunting is almost universal, so 

 deeply is it rooted as an inherited instinct ever 

 ready to rise and make itself known. Fine 

 scenery may not stir a fiber of mind or body, 

 but how quick and how true is the excitement 

 of the pursuit of game! Then up flames the 



44 



