2 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



see many mountain goats at home, in fine mountains ; and 

 straightway my good friend graciously invited me to 

 accompany him on his next trip. Before the invitation 

 could be withdrawn and cancelled, it was accepted. 



Being averse to deep snow as the basis of a pleasure- 

 trip, I voted for September as the month, and although 

 Mr. Phillips thought that the chances for finding griz- 

 zlies in that month were not great, he readily consented. 

 Never having gone through northern Montana from end 

 to end, I bespoke the selection of the Great Northern 

 Railway as our route from St. Paul, and we found that 

 the panorama of Montana thus secured was delightful 

 as well as instructive. 



The country traversed by the Northern Pacific Rail- 

 way is to me almost as familiar as my own door-yard; 

 but what lay north of the Missouri? And wherein 

 would it differ? 



Through the level and fertile wheat-lands of northern 

 Minnesota, there run so many parallels and feeders of the 

 Great Northern system that the " main line " is almost 

 a fiction of the past. The tenderfoot needs to be told 

 which section he is riding upon. From St. Paul up to 

 the latitude of Grand Forks, even a new trolley-line 

 would seem to be an inexcusable extravagance. 



A ride in August through the heart of our great 

 north-western wheat-belt is an event. Mile after mile, 

 and hour after hour, the sea of golden grain is being 

 swept in by the harvesters, bound into millions of bun- 

 dles, with the least possible expenditure of labor, 

 shocked, loaded and hauled to the threshers. Hither, 



