THE MOOSE 93 



mountain. In some places it passed beneath a wall of 

 rock on one side and overlooked a precipice on the 

 other. At times the trail was so narrow that, in 

 riding:, one foot almost touched the wall of rock and 

 the other was at the edge of the precipice, where 

 the tops of tall pines were a hundred, or often many 

 hundred, feet below. While we were strung out in 

 single file, some rattlesnakes alarmed the leading ani- 

 mal, ridden by a soldier, and there was a back-down 

 all along the line. It was evident that at any moment 

 one or more of the riders or pack-animals might be 

 crowded off the trail. After a few moments of great 

 suspense and peril for all of us, one of the pack-mules 

 was crowded off and went spinning through the air to 

 the tops of the tall pines, which grew on a steep in- 

 cline far below. One of our men slipped off his 

 horse, went forward quickly, and threw the snakes off 

 the trail in time to prevent further damage, and we con- 

 tinued on our way to the top of the mountains. Some 

 soldiers were sent down into the canyon (it was the 

 Black Canyon of the Big Horn Mountains) to recover 

 the pack. No one expected to again see the mule alive. 

 But at night the soldiers reached our camp, bringing 

 the mule with his pack — the animal being sadly the 

 worse for his mishap and having much of his skin torn 

 off. The branches of the pines, no doubt, broke his 

 fall, and the pack protected his back. 



When going after moose, especially in Maine, much 

 of the travelling is done in canoes. The guides know 

 how to handle them and can assist at the portage as 

 well as in camp; and the sportsman in the hands of a 

 good guide will go into the woods safely and comfort- 



