ON THE PRAIRIE 211 



.\eather was cool and pleasant, the nights 

 being frosty; and every two or three days 

 there was a flurry of light snow, which mi- 



1 the labor of tracking much more easy. 

 Indeed, throughout our stay on the moun- 

 tains, the peaks were snow-capped almost all 

 the time. Our fare was excellent, consisting 

 of elk venison, mountain grouse, and H 

 trout ; the last caught in one of the beautiful 

 lakes that lay almost up by timber line. 

 To us, who had for weeks been accustomed 

 to make small fires from dried brush, or from 

 sage-brush roots, which we dug out of the 

 ground, it was a treat to sit at night before 

 the roaring and crackling pine logs; as the 

 old teamster quaintly put it, we had at last 

 come to a land " where the wood grev. 

 trees/' There were plenty of black-tail deer in 

 the woods, and we came across a number of 

 bands of cow and calf elk, or of young bulls ; 

 but after several days' hunting, we were 

 without any head worth taking home, and 

 had seen no sign of grizzly, which was the 

 game we were especially anxious to kill ; for 



