THIRTY YEARS A HUNTER. 85 



which we followed down to the creek. We then 

 descended the creek three quarters of a mile and 

 encamped under a projecting rock. My brother 

 remained to build a fire, while Blackwell and myself 

 went farther down to find, and if possible, to get the 

 elk. We soon saw his hind quarters' projecting out 

 of the snow bank far above us. We followed a 

 ravine which led obliquely up the steep bank to a 

 large rock which had arrested the impetuous descent 

 of the elk, and above which he now lay. On the 

 rock stood a sapling, over which we threw a rope 

 by attaching a stone to one end. When we had 

 secured the rope, we resorted to our usual method of 

 deciding which should take the lead, as we both 

 shrunk from the perilous enterprise of scaling the 

 rock by the aid of a slender rope, with nothing but 

 a steep expanse of frozen snow between us and the 

 brow of a precipice of one hundred feet. The lot 

 fell upon Blackwell, and sticking the tomahawk in 

 his belt, he went up. He then cut steps in the snow 

 to the elk, which lay about forty feet above the sap- 

 ling. I followed him, but believing the steps to be 

 too small and unsafe, I requested him to slip the 

 tomahawk down to me that I might enlarge them. 

 One false step would have precipitated me down the 

 crust of snow and over the precipice. I reached the 

 elk safely, and we began to dig away the snow from 

 the lower side, intending to roll it out upon the crust 

 and let it elide down the snow bank. But Blackwell 

 noticed that the sapling stood in the course it would 

 ts»Vp arid feared that it would so with such force as 



8 



