GUIDES. 33 



mannered guide, on the other hand, is a joy and 

 consolation, a source of constant pleasure to the 

 whole party. With an ignorant guide you will 

 starve ; with a lazy one you will lose your temper ; 

 with a low-bred fellow you can have no comfort. 

 Fortunate in the selection of your guide, you will 

 be fortunate in everything you undertake clean 

 through the trip. A good guide, like a good wife, 

 is indispensable to one's success, pleasure, and 

 peace. If I were to classify such guides as are 

 nuisances, I should place at the head of the list 

 the "witty guide." He is forever talking. He 

 inundates the camp with gab. If you chance to 

 have company, he is continually thrusting himself 

 impertinently forward. He is possessed from head 

 to foot with the idea that he is smart. He can 

 never open his mouth unless it is to air his opin- 

 ions or perpetrate some stale joke. He is always 

 vulgar, not seldom profane. Avoid him as you 

 would the plague. 



Next in order comes the " talkative guide." 

 The old Indian maxim, " Much talk, no hunt," I 

 liave found literally verified. A true hunter talks 

 little. The habit of his skiU is silence. In camp 

 or afloat he is low-voiced and reticent. I have 

 met but one exception to this rule. I will not 

 name him, lest it give pain. He is a good hunter 

 and a capital guide, in spite of his evil tendency 

 to gab. This tendency is vicious in many ways. 



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