134 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



sparrows of several kinds moping about in the 

 alders ; and now and then one of them would 

 sing a few sweet, rather mournful bars. 



After several days' preliminary exploration 

 we started on foot for white goat. We took 

 no packs with us, each carrying merely his 

 jacket, with a loaf of bread and a paper of 

 salt thrust into the pockets. Our aim was to 

 get well to one side of a cluster of high, bare 

 peaks, and then to cross them and come back 

 to camp ; we reckoned that the trip would 

 take three days. 



All the first day we tramped through dense 

 woods and across and around steep mountain 

 spurs. We caught glimpses of two or three 

 deer and a couple of elk, all does or fawns, 

 however, which we made no effort to molest. 

 Late in the afternoon we stumbled across 

 a family of spruce grouse, which furnished 

 us material for both supper and breakfast. 

 The mountain men call this bird the fool- 

 hen ; and most certainly it deserves the 

 name. The members of this particular flock, 

 consisting of a hen and her three-parts grown 

 chickens, acted with a stupidity unwonted 

 even for their kind. They were feeding on 

 the ground among some young spruce, and on 

 our approach flew up and perched in the 

 branches four or five feet above our heads. 

 There they stayed, uttering a low, complain- 

 ing whistle, and showed not the slightest sus- 

 picion when we came underneath them with 

 long sticks and knocked four off their perches 

 for we did not wish to alarm any large 

 game that might be in the neighborhood by 

 firing. One particular bird was partially saved 



