194 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



parts of the old world and from " the states " to take 

 up and occupy the rich bottom lands in this great 

 valley. The Grand Trunk Pacific Kailroad, when com- 

 pleted, will run through the centre of this immense 

 tract of land, once the bed of a now dried up lake. 



At one of the stops we made to change horses, the 

 man in charge of the stable told us of a fracas he had 

 had the previous night with a black bear and two cubs 

 that had been " a-botherin' of " him for many nights 

 past. He managed to kill the mother bear and one of 

 the cubs, the other one getting away. The man was 

 much wrought up over the incident, and had we been 

 willing he would have kept us for an extra hour in 

 telling the story. 



This portion of the journey was very interesting in- 

 deed. For many miles the road led along the side of a 

 mountain near its top, and a sharp lookout had to be 

 kept for teams coming from the opposite direction, as 

 the road is but narrow and the passing of teams at this 

 high elevation is a ticklish performance, with a deep 

 canyon on one side and a precipitous mountain on the 

 other. In the winter time occasionally a stage then 

 of course set on runners slides over the edge and down 

 into the canyon below ; but, with deep snow on the 

 slope, there are rarely any fatalities. Of course there 

 will be bruises in plenty, broken harness, and perhaps 

 damaged merchandise. 



One of the houses where we stopped to change 



