202 BIG GAME SHOOTING IX ALASKA chap. 



short space of time. Here we saw Glyn's tents on the shore, 

 and running in with the two dories, we were just in time to 

 catch him and Little on the point of starting to pack up into 

 the forest. They decided to stay another night, and during 

 the afternoon the men reported a number of rabbits in a small 

 patch of willows near the camp. Thinking they would make 

 an excellent addition to the larder, Hanbury and I, taking 

 two Paradox guns and a few cartridges, posted ourselves out- 

 side the bushes. Little taking the natives and driving the 

 rabbits towards us in the most approved style of English 

 covert beating. For a few minutes things were quite lively 

 as the rabbits came out in all directions ; and we bagged 

 eleven of them without wasting a cartridge, returning to 

 camp a few minutes after leaving it with materials for a good 

 square meal for all hands. Towards evening the gale died 

 away, but Hanbury decided to remain with us for the night, 

 and left early next morning to sail farther along the lake, 

 where he meant to pitch his camp, some five or six miles 

 away in a good bit of moose country. At the same time we 

 started off to pack into the forest, a distance of about eight 

 miles from the lake, where the forest was not so dense, to a 

 place where Little had previously hunted moose with Mr. 

 Paget in 1901. Following an old trail which they had cut, 

 and which was still in good order, we finally reached a small 

 lake which lay on the higher ground and at no great distance 

 from the extreme edge of the timber line. This spot was 

 selected as our main camp for moose-hunting. For an area 

 of many miles around the camp a great forest fire had 

 devastated the country many years before. The gaunt and 

 charred fir-trees still standing in many places bore evidence 

 of this, and the still greater number of logs which had blown 

 down and lay half hidden in the long grass made the travelling 



