128 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



ordeal that was before me. My animals were in good con- 

 dition and spirits. For a week I travelled north-east, in 

 the hope of finding a suitable halting-place to remain in till 

 spring fairly commenced. At length I came upon a spot 

 which took my fancy a small table-land, well sheltered 

 from the northern wind, underneath which was a valley, that 

 the snow had partially disappeared from, and where there 

 was a fair quantity of bunch grass, the most desirable food 

 for the quadrupeds. Under a projecting rock I made my 

 camp, for the spot was so enclosed, that I hoped the light- 

 ing of a fire would not attract attention. Weeks rolled by, 

 and the mare and mule lost little of their condition, although 

 the weather was frequently pinching cold. The canons in 

 the neighbourhood supplied me with abundance of game, 

 and each day I expected that a break in the weather would 

 justify a start for the eastern settlements. Of course one 

 day was only in outline a repetition of the other, but how 

 widely different in detail. In the morning the horses were 

 taken to the bottom, breakfast was cooked, the enjoyable 

 pipe lit, and the direction settled in which I would hunt, 

 returning earlier or later, according to success. The after- 

 noon would pass mending moccasins or clothes, cleaning 

 arms or arranging camp, procuring firewood, till it was 

 time to hunt up the nags, which being accomplished, and 

 the evening meal dispatched, on a bed of leaves I would 

 smoke myself to sleep, painting, till no longer conscious, 

 pictures of distant home. A hunter's camp always becomes 

 a rendezvous for some wolves, and two of these scoundrels 

 were seldom beyond sight. Latterly they became so tame 

 that they would come close enough to pick up a bone if 



