TRAVEL IN THE MOUNTAINS 43 



mands the least chopping, and that does not tack too 

 often nor too far. As the axe-man proceeds, he must 

 mark the course between log-cuttings by lopping off a 

 bush, or scalping the top of a log with a single sweep of 

 his axe as he walks along, leaving a spot of clean, bright 

 wood. 



Where conditions are not too severe, men like our 

 four can chop out a trail with astonishing rapidity; but 

 occasionally they encounter long stretches of down tim- 

 ber that simply " break their hearts." In such places as 

 lower Avalanche Creek, there is nothing to do but to 

 camp and chop. 



In several creeks that we opened up to our pack- 

 train, we found old Indian trails, some of which helped 

 us very much. The first sign of such a trail is a large 

 bush or a small sapling that has been cut down by many 

 feeble blows. 



" Squaw hatchet!" or "Squaw work!" our guides 

 often exclaimed, pointing to a stem that had been un- 

 skilfully hacked down. A white man, with a sharp axe, 

 cuts down with one or two clean blows a sapling that a 

 squaw assaults a dozen times with her dull hatchet before 

 it falls. 



A long stretch of slide-rock is always a hard road for 

 a pack-train, unless a good trail has already been made 

 across it. I will have more to say of slide-rock farther 

 on, but in entering the mountains we encountered it, 

 soon and plenty. I know of but one species of rock 

 travel that is worse for a horse, and that is the slippery, 

 rounded bowlders, big and little, that so often underlie 



