IN COWBOY LAND. 241 



awful dread of the unknown, he grew to attri- 

 bute, both at the time and still more in re- 

 membrance, weird and elfin traits to what was 

 merely some abnormally wicked and cunning 

 wild beast ; but whether this was so or not, no 

 man can say. 



When the event occurred Bauman was still 

 a young man, and was trapping with a partner 

 among the mountains dividing the forks of 

 the Salmon from the head of Wisdom River. 

 Not having had much luck, he and his partner 

 determined to go up into a particularly wild and 

 lonely pass through which ran a small stream 

 said to contain many beaver. The pass had 

 an evil reputation because the year before a 

 solitary hunter who had wandered into it was 

 there slain, seemingly by a wild beast, the 

 half-eaten remains being afterwards found by 

 some mining prospectors who had passed his 

 camp only the night before. 



The memory of this event, however, weighed 

 very lightly with the two trappers, who were 

 as adventurous and hardy as others of their 

 kind. They took their two lean mountain 

 ponies to the foot of the pass, where they left 

 them in an open beaver meadow, the rocky 

 timber-clad ground being from thence onwards 

 impracticable for horses. They then struck 

 out on foot through the vast, gloomy forest, 

 and in about four hours reached a little open 

 glade where they concluded to camp, as signs 

 of game were plenty. 



There was still an hour or two of daylight 

 left, and after building a brush lean-to and 

 16 



