THE WAPITI, 177 



Then we came to the edge of a deep valley, 

 a couple of miles across. Into this we 

 scrambled, down a steep slide, where the 

 forest had grown up among the immense 

 boulder masses. The going here was difficult 

 to a degree ; the great rocks, dead timber, 

 slippery pine needles, and loose gravel entail- 

 ing caution at every step, while we had to 

 guard our rifles carefully from the conse- 

 quences of a slip. It was not much better at 

 the bottom, which was covered by a tangled 

 mass of swampy forest. Through this we 

 hunted carefully, but with no success, in spite 

 of our toil ; for the only tracks we saw that 

 were at all fresh were those of a cow and calf 

 moose. Finally, in the afternoon, we left the 

 valley and began to climb a steep gorge, down 

 which a mountain torrent roared and foamed 

 in a succession of cataracts. 



Three hours' hard climbing brought us to 

 another valley, but of an entirely different 

 character. It was several miles long, but less 

 than a mile broad. Save at the mouth, it was 

 walled in completely by chains of high rock- 

 peaks, their summits snow-capped ; the forest 

 extended a short distance up their sides. The 

 bottom of the valley was in places covered by 

 open woodland, elsewhere by marshy meadows, 

 dotted with dense groves of spruce. 



Hardly had we entered this valley before 

 we caught a glimpse of a yearling elk walk- 

 ing rapidly along a game path some distance 

 ahead. We followed as quickly as we could 

 without making a noise, but after the first 

 glimpse never saw it again ; for it is astonish- 

 ing how fast an elk travels, with its ground- 



