HUNTING IN THE SELKIRKS. 167 



places we caught a glimpse of an animal which 

 the track showed to be a wolverine. 



Then we came to a spur of open hemlock 

 forest ; and no sooner had we entered it than 

 the hunter stopped and pointed exultingly to 

 a well-marked game trail, in which it was easy 

 at a glance to discern the great round foot- 

 prints of our quarry. We hunted carefully 

 over the spur and found several trails, gener- 

 ally leading down along the ridge ; we also 

 found a number of beds, some old and some 

 recent, usually placed where the animal could 

 keep a lookout for any foe coming up from 

 the valley. They were merely slight hollows 

 or indentations in the pine-needles ; and, like 

 the game trails, were placed in localities 

 similar to those that would be chosen by 

 blacktail deer. The caribou droppings were 

 also very plentiful ; and there were signs of 

 where they had browsed on the blueberry 

 bushes, cropping off the berries, and also ap- 

 parently of where they had here and there 

 plucked a mouthful of a peculiar kind of moss, 

 or cropped off some little mushrooms. But 

 the beasts themselves had evidently left the 

 hemlock ridge, and we went on. 



We were much pleased at finding the sign 

 in open timber, where the ground was excel- 

 lent for still-hunting ; for in such thick forest 

 as we had passed through, it would have been 

 by mere luck only that we could have ap- 

 proached game. 



After a little while the valley became so 

 high that the large timber ceased, and there 

 were only occasional groves of spindling ever- 

 greens. Beyond the edge of the big timber 



3 6 B 



