208 WILD BEASTS AND TI1EIR WAYS CHAP. 



day to the pursuit, discarding all other game. On the third 

 morning I started with Texas Bill and Jem Bourne, all mounted, 

 and \vc rode by a circuitous route to the summit of the hill above 

 the valley of our camp. The snow had melted in most places, 

 leaving jMily small half-thawed patches. We had so thoroughly 

 explored the entire hillside for a distance of several miles during 

 the last two days, that I arranged a beat on the other side of the 

 mountain, upon the northern slope, facing the far-distant Rocky 

 Mountains. 



There were no spruce forests upon this side, but the long incline 

 was merely a sheet of rough prairie grass about 18 inches high, 

 intersected by deep ravines, filled with dwarf cotton-wood trees, 

 resembling the silver-barked black poplar. These trees grew about 

 25 feet high, and as thick as a man's arm, but so close together 

 that it was difficult to force a way through on horseback. 



There were many isolated patches of this covert in various places 

 upon the face of this northern slope, all of which were likely to 

 harbour bears or other game. My eye caught instinctively a long 

 dark ravine which cut the mountain from top to base, extending 

 several miles ; this was intersected about a mile and a half from 

 the summit by a smaller ravine, also springing from the drainage 

 of the highest ridge, and at the point of junction the two formed 

 a letter Y, the tail continuing, widened by the increased flow of 

 water. There was at this season a very slight stream about an 

 inch in depth, which resulted from the melting of the small amount 

 of snow upon the heights. 



There could not be a more likely place for bears, and I in- 

 structed my two men to ride to the bottom of the ravine, and to 

 force their horses through the thornless thicket, making no other 

 noise, but occasionally to tap the stems of trees with the handles 

 of their whips. 



I dismounted, and my well-trained horse followed close behind 

 me down the steep hillside, exactly on the border of the ravine. 

 This was not more than 80 yards across ; thus I could command 

 both sides should a bear break covert, when disturbed by my two 

 beaters ; there could not have been a more favourable locality. 



My men were thoroughly experienced, and the noise made by 

 the horses in struggling over stones and in rustling through the 

 cotton-wood trees was quite sufficient to disturb any animals that 

 might have been there ; accordingly they seldom tapped the tree- 

 stems. 



Black-tail deer were very plentiful ; these were about the size of 

 an ordinary fallow-deer, and they were extremely fat and delicious 



