American Big-Game Hunting 



into a tall impassable canon through which 

 the stream joined the Twispt, miles below. 

 It was a little lap of land clear at the top 

 of the mountains, the final peaks and ridges 

 of which rose all around, walling it in com- 

 pletely. You must climb these to be able to 

 see into it, and the only possible approach for 

 pack-horses was the pine-tree slant, down 

 which we came. Of course there was no 

 trail. 



We prospected before venturing, and T , 



the guide, shook his head. It was only a 

 question of days possibly of hours when 

 snow must shut the place off from the world 



until spring. But T appreciated the three 



thousand miles I had come for goats ; and if 

 the worst came to the worst, said he, we could 

 " make it in " to the Forks on foot, leading 

 the horses, and leaving behind all baggage 

 that weighed anything. So we went down. 

 Our animals slipped a little, the snow balling 

 their feet; but nothing happened, and we 

 reached the bottom and chose a camp in 

 a clump of tamarack and pine. The little 

 stream, passing through shadows here, ran 

 under a lid of frozen snow easily broken, and 



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