96 HUNTING TRIPS 



along them, clutching the gun in one hand, 

 and grasping each little projection with the 

 other. Climbing through the Bad Lands is 

 just like any other kind of mountaineering, 

 except that the precipices and chasms are 

 much lower; but this really makes very lit- 

 tle difference when the ground is frozen as 

 solid as iron, for it would be almost as un- 

 pleasant to fall fifty feet as to fall two 

 hundred, and the result to the person who 

 tried it would be very much the same in each 

 case. 



Hunting for a day or two without finding 

 game where the work is severe and toilsome, 

 is a good test of the sportsman's staying 

 qualities ; the man who at the end of the time 

 is proceeding with as much caution and de- 

 termination as at the beginning, has got the 

 right stuff in him. On this day I got rather 

 tired, and committed one of the blunders of 

 which no hunter ought ever to be guilty: 

 that is, I fired at small game while on ground 

 where I might expect large. We had seen 

 two or three jack-rabbits scudding off like 



